YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

4tafat mat&arme mar m Cotoer

With the Author's respectful compliments.

LONDON : PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET ¦ SQTJASE
AND PARLIAMENT STBEKT

THE
EOYAL HOSPITAL AND COLLEGIATE CHTJECH
OF
^atnt Itatftarfne near tbt Ztiwtv
IN ITS RELATION TO THE
EAST OF LONDON

BY
FREDERIC SIMCOX LEA, M.A.
HECTOR OF TKDSTONB DELAMERE
LATE FELLOW OF B1IA8ENOSE COLLEGE, OXFORD

WITH PEEFACE BY
THE LOED BISHOP OF LONDON
THE DUKE OF WESTMINSTER
AND OTHERS

LONDON
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
1878

M

:s

«I4

L462-

PREFACE.

The Royal Hospital of St. Katharine near the
Tower has maintained during more than a century
and a half the following distinctive features, viz.
that it is in its constitution Ecclesiastical, Educa
tional, and Eleemosynary.
It is obvious that a foundation with such
characteristics, and with a future income of, at
the lowest computation, over £10,000, may,
without infringing on 'founder's intentions,' be
of real use to the Metropolis.
We do not intend, in signing this short Preface,
to commit ourselves to all that Mr. Simcox Lea
so ably urges. We disclaim any idea of prejudging
the decision at which the Lord Chancellor may
arrive, or of interfering with the rights of patronage
or with existing interests. We desire simply to
express our opinion that in any scheme put forward

VI
for the restoration of the Hospital, the East of
London has a right, both from present need and
from ancient prescriptive title, to a share in its
benefits. J- LONDON. WESTMINSTER.NELSON.
W. E. FOESTER.
C. E. TREVELYAN.
E. H. CURRIE.'
J. BARDSLEY.
HARRY JONES.
CHAS. RITCHIE.
J. D'A. SAMUDA.

CONTENTS.

A.D. 1148—1545.
Introduction 
The Peecinct op St. Katharine
The Chapteb
De. Ducaeel's Histoey
Queen Matilda's Foundation
Queen Eleanoe's Chaetee
Queen Philippa's Charter
The Collegiate Church .
The ' Great Charter ' of Henry VI.
Queen Katharine op Arragon .

13 6
121416 18
24
2629

II. A.D. 1545—1547.
The Act for Dissolution op Colleges
The Survey of St. Katharine's
The Sisters' Close ....
The Inhabitants op the Peecinct .

32
41
49 52

III. A.D. 1547^1565.
The Lay Mastership.
Queen Mary's Chaplain, Master
Queen Elizabeth's Order
De. Mallett's Lettee
Dr. Thomas Wilson, Master .

5961 62
69 73

Contest with the City
Renewal of the 'Great Charter'
Exemption from Tenths, &c.

76
8081

IV. A.D. 1565—1825.
The Patronage op St. Katharine's
Sie Julius Cesar, Master
The Sisters in the 17th Century
The Brothers „ „
The Visitation op Lord Somers
Present and Future Income
Conclusion ....

89939899
103
105 106

ST. KATHARINE'S HOSPITAL

i.
£ What is Saint Katharine's Hospital?'
To offer some answer to the foregoing question is a.». 1148-1545.
the object of the following pages. But the writer introduction.
is aware that he may be in the outset, to use the
phraseology of Parliamentary courtesy, ' met by the
previous question.' In other words, it may be, as
it has been, objected, that such an inquiry ought
not to be proposed. It becomes, therefore, incum
bent on those who are urging it to show satisfactory
reasons ' that the question be now put.' For a
vague and undefined impression has prevailed
in a section of educated society that to raise
any discussion on the subject of St. Katharine's
Hospital is about on a level, in point of good
taste, with the miserable criticisms with which little
provincial newspapers occasionally indulge their
readers upon the private affairs of the Court; and
much indulgence must necessarily be extended to
B

a.d. 1148-1545. the well-meaning and loyal ignorance of drawing-
rooms and country houses. It is, no doubt, per
fectly true that the patronage of all the dignities
in the Chapter of St. Katharine is, and has been
since the death of Queen Adelaide, vested in the
Queen, and that this patronage is really, as well as
nominally, exercised by Her Majesty, while the
dignities in the Chapter of Westminster Abbey are
virtually in the gift of the Prime Minister. It does
not, however, require any deep research into history
to discover that Crown patronage was not always
disposed of by the ruling political party, or that
the limits of the Prime Minister's claims have been
the subject of grave question during the present
reign. While, therefore, it is acknowledged with
out hesitation that the Mastership now vacant, if
it be still vacant, of St. Katharine's Hospital is
personally at the disposal of the Queen, without
reference to her Constitutional advisers, it does not
by any means thereby follow that the gift of this
dignity belongs to Her Majesty by any private, as
distinct from public, right. The liberty of inquiry
into the nature and the administration of St. Ka
tharine's is claimed upon the same basis of right
and expediency as that upon which other founda
tions of similar character have been made the sub
jects of public discussion and official investiga
tion ; and the necessity of offering any argument in
support of the position thus advanced is obviated
by the special provision of an Act of Parliament
which is officially admitted to include the case of

3
St. Katharine's Hospital, and which from internal a.d.h48-i545.
evidence appears to have been drawn with a direct
reference to this foundation (3 & 4 Yict. c. 113, s. 65).
The Collegiate Chapter of the Royal Hospital and
Pree Chapel of St. Katharine near the Tower is an
ecclesiastical corporation of the Church of England
of higher antiquity, if we may accept the testimony
of a well-known archaeologist in 1824, than any
other existing. Its original foundation dates from
1148 ; its re-foundation from 1273. It remained till
the year 1825 on the site which its description in
dicates, and where its name still remains as that of
a civil parish adjacent to the City of London.
This site is the Precinct of St. Katharine, lying The Precinct of
eastward of the Tower. It is about eleven acres
in extent; and though for the most part covered
by the St. Katharine t Docks, it has still a small
number of houses, and as one of the Tower Hamlets
contributes its quota of voters to that constituency ;
while as a parish in the Whitechapel Union it has
found itself drawn within the area of union rating
by recent legislation, and compelled to bear a
burden of poor rate, from which the Dock Com
pany, by their ingenious purchase of an entire
parish, had contrived, as they supposed, to render
themselves practically exempt. Por the Precinct
contained in 1821 a population of 2,624, which in
the census of 1831 was reduced to 72. The con
struction of the Docks had thus dispossessed a
large and poor population, who were necessarily
crowded, around the scene of labour provided by
B 2

a.d. 1148-1515. the Docks, into the adjacent East-end parishes of
~~ Aldgate, St! George's in the East, Whitechapel,
Wapping, and Stepney. The fact and the con
sequences of this great eviction must be borne in
mind in estimating the weight and the nature of
the responsibilities attaching to the ecclesiastical
foundation of St. Katharine. The whole Precinct,
as its name implies, was the property of the Hos
pital, and the sum paid by the Dock Company to
the Chapter for the purchase of the freehold in
1825 was £125,000. Other sums, representing
the cost of re-erecting the buildings, and compen
sations for vested ecclesiastical interests, amounted
to nearly £50,000, in addition to the purchase-
money of the freehold. Of the sums paid by the
Dock Company for the purchase of the leasehold
interests belonging to the tenants of the Hospital
no particulars have been published; but as the
leases were granted on payment of fines the actual
value of the Precinct property cannot be ascer
tained without them. Exclusively, however, of
leasehold interests or their equivalents received
in the form of fines, the actual cash value of the
East-end real property paid by the Dock Company
to the Chapter is returned at £163,000. Of this
sum a part is now represented by the buildings in
the Regent's Park ; a part by purchased landed
property ; and the remainder by investments in
the public Punds. To this portion of the Hospital
property, therefore, the principle of < local claims,'
as recognised in practice by the Ecclesiastical

Commissioners, would appear directly to apply, on A.D.1148-1545.
grounds familiar to everyone who is conversant
with the administration of. trust property. If a
railway company of the present time had paid a
like sum for the acquisition of the property of a
trust estate, the amount, however invested, would
remain subject to all the original conditions of the
. trust ; and, without at present entering into any
question as to the general landed estates of St.
Katharine's Hospital, an exceptionally strong local
claim on behalf of the East-end of London appears
to attach to the corpus prcebendce itself, the actually
existing equivalent of the Precinct Estate. Of
the relation between this value and the population
already shown to have been evicted on the com
pletion of the purchase the writer may have some
further remarks to offer. What has already been
said may serve to establish a sufficient justification
for the movement in favour of an inquiry into the
position of St. Katharine's Hospital, which origi
nated in the East- end about thirteen years since,
and has been continued from that date as oppor
tunity arose.
The nature of the claim which has thus been
advanced on behalf of the East-end population
has been defined by the outlines of historical fact
which have been ascertained in the course of the
inquiry. The mass of information obtained and
published by Mr. Skirrow in 1866, upon his in
spection of the Hospital on behalf of the Charity
Commissioners, might seem to have rendered any

a.d.ii48 1545. additional investigation needless ; but, as his object
was rather to ascertain the amount and application
of the existing revenues than to examine into the
ecclesiastical and antiquarian aspects of the foun
dation, some points both of interest and importance
have been either but lightly touched upon or alto
gether omitted in his valuable report. In offering
a brief answer to the question, ' What is St. Katha
rine's Hospital?' it is, perhaps, better, in the first
instance, to revert to its condition just before the
sale of the Precinct in 1825; although, if a rumour
which has obtained some private circulation be well
founded, . a restoration of its ancient order has re
cently been made by the highest authority, which
presents the personal organisation of the Chapter
in its original completeness, and as it has not been
seen since the great ecclesiastical changes of the
reign of Henry VIII.
The Chapter. The Precinct of St. Katharine near the Tower
was originally the small plot of ground which
surrounded the buildings of the Hospital, as
founded by Queen Matilda in 1148. There is some
doubt whether Matilda's foundation was exactly
the same, in the number of its members, as that
established by Queen Eleanor in 1273, and the
latter is that which exists at the present day. In
1825 the Collegiate Church of St. Katharine stood
in the midst of its Precinct ; the buildings of the
College or Hospital adjoined it, as in other colle
giate churches, and included the houses of the
Master, of the three Brothers, who were the

canons or clergy of the church, and of the three a.d. 1148-1545.
Sisters, with perhaps the remains of rooms formerly
assigned to the ten beadswomen of the Foundation.
It must be remembered that a hospital in the older
ecclesiastical sense of the term in no way involved
the meaning in which we now ordinarily use the
word, and which we never think of attaching to its
associated term, 'hospitality.' In what particulars
' hospitals returned as Promotions Spiritual in the
reign of Henry VIII.' may have differed from the
various ecclesiastical corporations otherwise desig
nated there is no need for our present purpose to
examine. St. Katharine's was and is still a col
legiate church, with its chapter, and has its place
in the ' Clergy List ' side by side with Westmin
ster Abbey and St. George's, Windsor. The three
brothers or canons, who are all beneficed clergy
men, are exempted from the obligation to reside
on their benefices during the period of their official
residence as members of the Collegiate Chapter,
under exactly the same clauses of the Pluralities
Act (1838) as those which apply to the canons
residentiary of other collegiate or cathedral
churches. They are, in fact, exactly in the same
legal position as they would have been had the
ancient Church of St. Katharine near the Tower
still remained.
In this church the clergy of the St. Katharine's
Chapter were the residentiary canons : the accident
of their being without a clerical head in the Decanal
stall will be explained presently. They differed,

8
a.d. H48-1545. however, from the clergy of an ordinary cathedral
chapter in two important points : possessing on the
one side additional dignities, and charged on the
other with additional duties. Por St. Katharine's
was a centre of independent ecclesiastical jurisdic
tion, and at the same time the parish church of
a large population. Its jurisdiction as a Royal
Peculiar was independent of any diocesan or pro
vincial control ; it owed no allegiance to the Bishop
of London or the Archbishop of Canterbury ; it
had its own Ecclesiastical Court, and granted pro
bate of wills and marriage licenses within its limits.
These ancient privileges have never been specifically
withdrawn ; whether they still exist, and if so,
whether they adhere to the ancient soil, or have
been transferred with the Chapter to the Regent's
Park, may be among the problems of jurisdiction
left to perplex the soul of Lord Penzance. But
with these dignities of the Chapter were associated
the humbler labours of ordinary parochial clergy
men ; the inhabitants of the Precinct were the
parishioners of the collegiate church, and to this
relation it is more than probable that the survival
of the ancient foundation to our own times is
mainly due. The writer has seen a statement,
which he has not now the means of verifying, that
an attempt was made in the reign of Queen Eliza
beth to place the Church of St. Katharine's Precinct
by Act of Parliament on the footing of an ordinary
parochial church ; but if such an attempt was made
it was unsuccessful, and the church remained in

its old relation to the Hospital Chapter and estates, a.d. 11*8-1545.
As the whole Precinct was the property of the
Hospital the tenants or inhabitants would obviously
be exempt from tithe ; and this exemption they
allege in an important memorial of Elizabeth's
time, which is published at length in Dr. Ducarel's
History. Other ecclesiastical dues, fees, and offer
ings they were accustomed to pay ' orderly,' as they
state, ' as other parishes in the City of London.'
Like other parishes also, as time went on, the
Precinct of St. Katharine had its benefactions and
its charities ; among the latter, from the early part
of the eighteenth century, its parochial Charity
School, which has been erroneously supposed by
some recent writers of newspaper and other articles
to have been a part of the Hospital foundation.
Its funds were entirely distinct from those of the
Hospital ; and on the formation of the Docks the
capital remaining in the hands of its trustees was
transferred to the parochial schools of Aldgate.
St. Katharine's Hospital was never in any sense of
the word or in any degree an educational foundation
till after the removal of the Chapter and buildings
to the Regent's Park. The present small schools
for boys and girls were established under the orders
of Lord Lyndhurst.
No question could possibly have been raised as
to the nature and responsibilities of this ancient
collegiate foundation had the Church of the Pre
cinct remained on its historical site. The Colle
giate Church, standing in its parochial relation to

10
a.d. 1148-1545. a large population, would of necessity have been
dealt with as an integral part of our general
ecclesiastical system. But in one of its essential
and most important characteristics it would have
been found, as it is now actually found, to be abso
lutely unique and without parallel ; and the value
of the exceptional survival which thus attracts
attention can hardly, in our present social and
ecclesiastical position, be over-estimated. In the
Collegiate Chapter of St. Katharine, alone among
existing foundations, the Church of England has
retained female members in the persons of ladies
equal in rank and dignity, and of equal voting
power within the limits of the capitular body, to
the clerical members or canons. Por the consti
tution and style of this venerable foundation is
that of the ' Master, Brothers, and Sisters of the
Royal Hospital and Pree Chapel of St. Katharine
near the Tower,' and as such it has been known
at least since the date of its restoration and
re -establishment by Queen Eleanor, in 1273. In
evidence of this there is no need to refer the
reader to the rolls of the State Paper Office
or even to archaeological volumes on the shelves
of the British Museum. Any of the annual
issues of the familiar ' Clergy List ' will supply
proof of the fact. The Sisters of St. Katharine's
Hospital have their place with deans and canons
on the page which contains the list of the Collegiate
Chapters of Westminster and Windsor and other
similar churches not of cathedral rank. But

11
one detail of peculiar interest belonging to the a.d. 1148-1545.
position of the ladies of this Chapter has been
ascertained in the course of the historical investi
gation undertaken by residents in East London.
Whatever may have been the fortunes or misfor
tunes of the Clerical Brotherhood of St. Katharine's
in the troubled days which date from the close
of Henry VIII.'s reign — and on this head some
further remarks will be made — it is known that
the Sisterhood has remained unchanged, and that
it has preserved in undoubted and unbroken suc
cession the identity of the ancient community from
the thirteenth century to the present time. Eccle
siastical rank and dignity has involved, as a matter
of course, ecclesiastical duty; and if in the last or
the present century the positions of these ladies
may have been practically regarded as sinecures,
the example of Reverend and Very Reverend dig
nitaries of capitular bodies, to say nothing of a
succession of Lay dignitaries more closely within
their view in St. Katharine's, will afford a more than
sufficient excuse. If the duties of the members
have been in abeyance, it is difficult to see how
any other condition of affairs could have been
expected under the circumstances which for
more than three centuries have attached to the
existence of their head, the de facto Master of St.
Katharine's Hospital. In order to explain these
circumstances it will be necessary to give some
account of the original constitution and subsequent
history of the Hospital; and this has been made

12
a.d. H48-1545. possible in our own time through the graceful
expression, in 1763, by a learned antiquary of that
date, of the same sentiment of enthusiastic loyalty
which just one hundred years later was called forth
from the whole nation, and which determines the
most zealous reformers of ecclesiastical or other
institutions that whatever changes may take place
in the administration of St. Katharine's Hospital,
the reversionary rights — long may they continue
in reversion — of the Royal Bride of 1863 must
remain unimpaired and untouched.
Dr. Ducarei's When Queen Charlotte was a bride, in 1761,
History. .... .
the distinguished antiquary, Dr. Andrew Coltee
Ducarel, held the office of Commissary and Official
Principal of the Ecclesiastical Court belonging to
the jurisdiction of the Royal Hospital of St.
Katharine. The patronage of the foundation had
been vested from the first in the Queens of
England: a title which applied to the Queen
Consort of the Sovereign, whose right had been
held to continue during life as part of her dower;
so that a Queen Consort's succession as Patroness
did not accrue till the death of the Queen Dowager.
As a bridal offering to the Queen, Dr. Ducarel
conceived the idea of writing a History of the
Foundation thus within her patronage, and this-
idea was carried into execution in 1763, when a
manuscript volume was placed in Her Majesty's
hands. It is not known whether this volume is
preserved in the Royal Library; but Dr. Ducarel
had made a copy in duplicate for himself, which

13
copy, cut and mutilated by the author for the sub- a.t>.ih8-i545.
sequent purposes of his enlarged work of 1782,
but on the whole sufficiently perfect for reference,
was found in 1866 in the possession of a London
bookseller, and is now in the library of Sion
College. Ducarei's printed work, with its appen
dices, is the leading historical authority on this
subject, and supplies the key to further investi
gation. It is not free from inaccuracies; and
these in some cases amount to grave historical
blunders and misrepresentations, for which it is
impossible satisfactorily to account. Copies of
charters given in the appendices are disfigured by
typographical mistakes, and the translation of these
documents exhibits in many passages an amount of
ignorance only less extraordinary than the accept
ance of the version in unquestioning simplicity by
Royal and other Commissioners. To one sentence,
as astonishing in its no-meaning as in its reiterated
quotation, till it was laughed out of the House of
Lords by the Bishop of London in 1871, it will
be necessary hereafter to refer. With all its ble
mishes in execution, however, Ducarei's History
of St. Katharine's is invaluable, and indispensable
to any thorough inquiry into the subject. From
1782 the history was carried down to 1824 in a
small quarto work written by Mr. J. B. Nichols,
when the Docks Bill was before Parliament,
and when the authorities of the Hospital and
the parishioners of the Precinct were equally
opposed to the contemplated alienation of the

14
a.d. 1148-1545. Hospital property and destruction of the Collegiate
Church.
Queen As the object of the present paper is not
Matilda's foundation. directly archaeological, the very interesting story
of the first foundation of St. Katharine's by Queen
Matilda, and of the great struggle which a century
and a quarter later took place for its possession,
need not be related in detail. The original grant
of Matilda, confirmed by her husband, King
Stephen, was for the repose of the souls of two of
her children who were buried in the Church of the
great Priory of Aldgate. The foundation, which
is described in its charters as ' hospitale pauper um,'
consisted of thirteen members, and their earliest
style appears as ' The Brothers and Sisters ' of the
said Hospital. Mr. Skirrow's report to the Charity
Commissioners specifically designates the members
as ' A Master, three Brothers Chaplains, .three
Sisters, and six poor Scholars ; ' but Ducarel
writes : 'A Master, Brothers, and Sisters, and
other poor persons ; ' and the writer has not met
with any direct mention of the six poor scholars in
any document relating to Matilda's foundation.
The Queen had given the custody of this
Hospital into the hands of the Prior and Convent
of the Holy Trinity, or Christ Church, within
Aldgate, and had endowed it with estates still
held by the Chapter. The Aldgate House in
course of time began to regard this trust of
guardianship as practically a grant of property
in the Hospital itself ; and in the long legal pro-

15
ceedings which arose out of this claim it appears a.d.h48-i545.
incidentally that the brothers and sisters of this
Hospital had not, as yet, a common seal ; the seals
of the Dean and Archdeacon of London being in
consequence affixed in their behalf. The contest
for the possession of the Hospital, which began in
1255, was not finally decided till 1273. The claim
of the Priory was energetically supported by the
Pope ; the right of Eleanor, the Queen Consort of
Henry III., was maintained by the Crown and the
Bishop of London. The re -foundation, or, as
Ducarel prefers to call it, the foundation of the
new Hospital on the same site, was completed by
Eleanor's charter in the first year of her widow
hood, July 5, 1273. Upon the merits of this
transaction there is a curious conflict of opinion
between the earlier and later historians of St.
Katharine's. Ducarel, no doubt remembering
that his own dignity was a residt of the defeat of
the Aldgate monks, applauds the 'spirited be
haviour ' of ' Queen Alianore,' whom Nichols, on
the contrary, overwhelms with reproaches for her
'shameful' and 'unjust exercise of power;' for
getting in his antiquarian zeal that if the Queen
had been defeated by the Priory no Hospital of
St. Katharine would have survived for his ad
miration, as its estates with itself would have been
absorbed by its powerful neighbour, and would
have shared in the fall of that house at the Dis
solution. Queen Eleanor's restored foundation
happily still survives, and is now only passing

16
a.d. ii48-i545„ through one of the periods of transition to which
St. Katharine's has been accustomed, for better or
worse, at intervals of somewhat less than two
centuries on an average. Its most serious injury
dates from the long reign of Elizabeth ; its most
hopeful revival will hereafter be dated from that of
Queen Victoria.
Queen Queen Eleanor's Hospital consisted of a Master
charter. and three Brothers, all priests ; three Sisters, and
ten beadswomen ; the Master, Brothers, and Sisters
forming the Chapter or Corporation, and having a
common seal in that style. The foundation was
' in pure and perpetual alms,' in the first place
' pro salute animae ' of Henry III., and also for the
souls of herself, the foundress, of the kings and
queens her predecessors and successors, and of
others ; and the patronage was reserved to herself
and to the Queens of England — ' Reginis Angliaa
nobis succedentibus ' — for ever, with absolute
power in regulating the administration of the
Hospital. Mr. Skirrow, in his repprt, has sup
plied so full an abstract of this charter that it is
unnecessary to quote it here at any length. The two
conditions of the existence of the foundation were
the maintenance of divine service and of alms ;
and as the possessions of the Hospital should
increase, the members of the capitular body and
of the recipients of the alms were also to be in
creased in number.
The three Brothers had each his daily duty of
divine service assigned to him. One of them was

17
to celebrate the Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a.d. 1148-1545.
another that for the souls aforesaid, and the third
the mass of the day. The distribution of alms
was to be as follows: — Every day in the year,
except on one day specially provided for, twenty-
four poor persons, 'according to the ordering of
the Master,' were to receive twelve pence, or one
halfpenny each. On the excepted day, November
16, being the ' obit ' of King Henry III., the dole
of one halfpenny each was to be given ' mille
pauperibus,' to one thousand recipients ; while of
the daily twenty-four six were to be poor scholars,
who were to assist the chaplains in divine service
when they could do so consistently with their
studies. These regulations for the distribution of
the alms are of the highest importance in regard
to the ' local claims ' of the East-end of London,
since it is evident —
1. That the 'twenty-four poor persons' were
not members of the Hospital, but of necessity,
therefore, inhabitants of its neighbourhood.
2. That the six poor scholars were specially
named among such inhabitants as belonging to a
class then generally favoured in the distribution of
alms. 3. That the ' thousand' poor of the 16th No
vember must have been gathered from a large
surrounding area.
The statement, therefore, which the Royal
Commissioners make in their Report of 1871, that
' the Hospital never had a merely local character
c

18
a.d.1148-1545. when it was originally instituted' — a statement
~~ which seems to be used for the purpose of denying
any local character at all, and not only a ' merely
local ' one, for the foundation— required some proof
to be alleged in support of it, instead of being in
troduced incidentally as a matter of such absolute '
certainty that its very mention was enough to dis
pose of the arguments put forward by persons
who, as it happened, were known by the Commis
sioners to rest their case on propositions involving
its direct denial. It is, perhaps, however, super
fluous to point out in a document like the Royal
Commissioners' Report such a merely minor over
sight as the logical fallacy known as ' petitio
principii,' or ' begging the question.' It is enough
to remark that the Hospital was originally insti
tuted in the East-end of London, and that its daily
alms were to be distributed to persons not members
of the community, but obviously chosen by the
Master among the surrounding poor.
Queen From Eleanor's charter of 1273 the history
Charts!1 passes to another charter, which may be described
as the Charter of Statutes, as distinguished from the
Charter of Foundation preceding, and from the Great
Charter of Privileges, hereafter to be mentioned.
This charter was granted by Philippa, Queen of
Edward III., in 1351, and its provisions exhibit to
us the various constituent elements of the foun
dation as it then existed, the only omitted particular,
the mention of the exact number of the beads
women, being supplied from other sources. The

19
copies of Eleanor's charter which have been pre- A.D.1148-1545.
served are incomplete, but its recital in the reign
of Henry VI. shows that the foundation consisted
of the Master, three Brothers, and three Sisters,
who formed the Chapter, or governing body, and
of six poor scholars and ten beadswomen as non-
capitular members, receiving alms from the Hos
pital. The only variation from this form known
to have been made before the reign of Henry VIII.
is found in the addition of two chaplains, who are
described by Ducarel as chantry-priests upon
foundations separately recorded. The estates of all
chantries -collegiate passed to the Crown under an
Act of 1 Edward VI. (1547), and it is evident that
the chantries in St. Katharine's Church were not
supposed to form any exception to the general rule.
This point, however, will need some further notice.
It has already been observed that the benefit
derived from the foundation by the six poor
scholars was of the nature of alms only, and that
they were not provided with education. The Or
dinance of Queen Philippa directs that they shall
be ' daily supported in food and raiment by the
alms of the Hospital;' and as it will be seen that in
the reign of Henry VIII. they were lodged within
the ' College,' they may be assumed to have become
resident members of the community, at least from
the time of the building of the Collegiate Church,
for which Philippa's charter makes express pro
vision. They pass from sight in the catastrophe —
whatever may have been, its nature — of 1545, and
c 2

20
A.D.ii48-i545. never reappear. A characteristic and unavailing
'complaynynge' from the East-end Precinct in
1565— exactly three hundred years before the
East-end ' complaynynge ' of our own time began
—is their only epitaph. The ' free, pure, and per
petual! almes of the poor vi. scollers to be mayn-
teyned' had been a very tangible benefit in the
experience of the inhabitants ; and though Mr.
Secretary Cecil did not advise the Queen's Grace to
restore it, he .is not reported to have informed the
petitioners that the Hospital ' never had any local
character.' The foundation, at the period of re
moval in 1825, consisted of the seven members of
Chapter and the ten beadswomen only.
The duties of the members of the Hospital are
set forth explicitly in Queen Philippa's Ordinance,
which is a document of great value as an expres
sion of fervent spiritual devotion in the English
Church of the day. It will be remembered that it
belongs to the period of the great church-building
movement of the fourteenth century; and it was
itself definitely associated with that movement,
directing as it did by its later clauses that all the
residue of profits, after maintaining the ordinary
charges of the community, should be devoted to
the ' good work ' of completing the church then in
course of building. The Queen, or more probably
Paul de Monte Florio, Prebendary of St. Paul's,
an ecclesiastic of some mark and high in Royal
favour, whom she had just appointed to the Mas
tership of St. Katharine's, has left on record the

21
practical religious purposes which a foundation of a.d.ihs-1545.
this character was designed to serve : ' Ut vita et
conditio servientium inibi Deo famulantium ad
notitiam hominum patefiat, luceat et clarescat:'
that the ' light ' of the Chapter of St. Katharine's
might ' so shine before men ' as that ' omnibus
notum fiat, ad majorem devotionem populi exci-
tandam.' The English reader, supplying well-
known words as to ' seeing your good works,' will
precisely follow the thought of the Ordinance,
repeated again and again. Every detail of divine
service in the Church, of domestic life in the com
munity, of charitable offices among the poor, is
directed to this end: — 'Quod ex bono gestu et
operibus pietatis ibidem exercitis devotio populi ad
collaudandum Deum et eis beneficiandum poterit
adaugeri.' The Queen, in the words last quoted,
has supplied a very practical hint that the members
of the foundation would find in doing their duty
the surest way to the hearts of the people, and thus
to permanent prosperity ; and she goes on to urge
the force and benefit of religious example. (The
writer is here compelled to offer an apology
in deference to the unsectarian tendencies now
fashionable. He begs permission to explain that
he is not preaching a sermon, but only copying
from a fourteenth century charter of St. Katharine's
Hospital, which recites as follows): ' Quoniam, ubi
Deus devote colitur, et cum honestate debita
quotidiana ministeria impenduntur, omnes Christi-
colae ex hoc plus animantur ad interessendum ibi

22
a.d. 1H8-1545. Divinis officiis, et ad exercenda inibi opera chari-
tatis.' The framer of the charter thought that the
existence of this religious house near the Tower
would, if its members did their duty, accustom
their East-end neighbours to worship God in
church, and encourage them to lead neighbourly
and kindly Christian lives amongst themselves. No
doubt this was an opinion formed more than 500
years ago, and can only be taken at the present
day for what it is worth. It forms, however, the
basis of one of the chief trust-deeds by which St.
Katharine's Hospital and its estates have been
handed down, ' Reginis Angliae nobis succedentibus,'
to the care of Queens of England for ever.
Queen Philippa ordered that the Master of the
Hospital at the time of his appointment should be
' sacerdos- professus,' already in priest's orders.
There had never been any doubt that the Master
ship was a spiritual office; but ecclesiastical appoint
ments were not unfrequently made at an age before
the recipients were canonically capable of holy
orders, and it appears probable that the special
provision in the case of the Mastership may have
been intended to guard against this abuse. The
three brothers are simply ordered to be priests,
' sacerdotes,' and from the expression in Eleanor's
charter, ' frater clericus vel laicus substituatur,'
in reference to the nomination to a vacancy, it is
possible that a layman might be admitted on con
dition of his entering the holy orders which the
duties of the office rendered obligatory. The

23
brothers were to celebrate the daily divine offices a.d. 1148-1545.
with the help (' cum adjutorio ') of six or more
poor scholars, as before mentioned ; the sisters
being also bound to be present at these services.
An important clause imposes on the brothers and
sisters alike certain duties outside the order of
Church services. The clause in the charter runs
as follows : ' Item, visitabunt debiles et infirmos
ibidem degentes, tarn in divinis officiis dicendis
quam in aliis operibus charitatis eis erogandis.'
Reference has already been made to this sentence,
the meaning of which could hardly have been
expressed in simpler words. The brothers and
sisters were 'to visit the sick and infirm there
dwelling ' — a later clause provides separately for
the case of sickness among the beadswomen of the
Hospital — ' as well in the saying of divine offices,'
obviously the duty of the clerical members of the
society, ' as in performing for them other works of
charity,' in which, as obviously, the sisters had
their part to take. Will it be believed that both
the Charity Commissioners and the Royal Commis
sioners, to say nothing of writers of pamphlets and
magazine articles, should have accepted and adopted,
on the authority of a wretched English translation
in Ducarei's appendix, the following absurdity:
' That the brothers and sisters shall visit the sick
and infirm, as well in reading to them as asking
them questions in matters of divinity, as other
works of charity'? When the Royal Commis
sioners state that the Hospital, from its earliest

24
a.d. H48-1545. institution, 'never had any local character,' it must
be borne in mind that these great authorities have
also translated ' ibidem degentes ' by ' in reading
to them,' without taking the trouble to find out
that the words mean ' dwelling there,' and point
distinctly to the sick poor near the Tower as the
objects of the Chapter's pious and charitable care,
When the beadswomen were sick a special ordi
nance enjoined that attendance upon them should
be undertaken by the sisters and by each other.
The minute and elaborate directions contained in
this charter for the order and discipline of the
house are of great interest, both from a social and
from an ecclesiastical point of view ; but for the
object of this paper it may be sufficient to refer
only to one group of these rules, in which the
capitular rights of the members are defined. The
consent of the brothers and sisters was required
for all acts of the Chapter, and the three keys
of access to the common seal were placed in the
custody of the Master, the senior Brother, and the
senior Sister respectively.
The Collegiate With the building of the Collegiate Church the
Church. ii-i
period of the highest dignity and importance of St.
Katharine's appears to begin. The foundation had
retained all the original estates of Matilda's Hospital,
and additional endowments had been obtained by
Royal grants, which from time to time were increased ;
and it must be noticed that the charter of Philippa
bo far modifies that of Eleanor that the augmen
tation of the revenues, which the earlier deed

25
assigned by anticipation to the extension of the a.d. 11 48-154 5.
numbers and of the alms of the community, by the
later deed is destined to increase the magnificence
of its church. This point is of some importance,
as explaining an apparent neglect of the directions
of the foundress which has given occasion for some
critical remark. St. Katharine's in the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries advanced, and was intended
to advance, from the humble position of its early
years as ' hospitale pauperum ' to that of a founda
tion of high ecclesiastical dignity and rank in close
association with the Tower and conspicuous among
the Royal chapels. Its situation at the same time
connected it immediately with the Port of London ;
a connection which as materially influenced its
rising fortunes in the fifteenth century as it directly
caused its fall four hundred years later. In the
charters of Eleanor and Philippa the members of
the Hospital form the only community represented,
their eleemosynary relations existing only with an
undefined population of surrounding poor. The
Charter of Privileges granted by Henry VI. deals
with and recognises the interest of a new and
defined community in the inhabitants of the Pre
cinct of St. Katharine, tenants under the Hospital
and parishioners of the Collegiate Church. It has
already been shown that the area included within
the Precinct of the Hospital covered eleven acres
of land, and that in 1821 the population amounted
to 2,624. Some reference to the gradual growth
of this population will be found in Ducarei's

26
a.d. 1U8-1545. History. The Master of St. Katharine's, John
Preston, clerk, was one of the Commissioners of
Sewers for the County of Middlesex in 1511 (Pat.
Roll, 3 H. VIII. pt. 1), and the Precinct is shown
to have been an important London parish in the
reign of Elizabeth. This character, if not originally
acquired, was confirmed and historically estab
lished for St. Katharine's by the ' Great Charter '
of Henry VI., granted in 1441 ; and it is due
to the Royal Commissioners to remark that their
statement that ' the Hospital never had a local
character ' is qualified by the words ' when it was
originally instituted,' which may possibly have
been intended to bar any inconvenient reference to
the conspicuously ' local ' character attached to it by
the Great Charter of its liberties at a later date.
It will be seen that this charter was surrendered
to and re-granted, with one modification, by Queen
Elizabeth, and it continued in operative force till
1825. To what extent, if any, it may be operative
now may be a curious legal question, but is prac
tically immaterial.
The 'Great Ducarei's abstract of the general privileges
Charter 'of TT T
Henry vi. granted by Henry VI. does not adequately express
their nature and extent. He writes : ' This charter
sets forth and ascertains the Precincts of the said
Hospital, which are declared exempt, free, and
quit from all jurisdiction, secular and ecclesiastical,
except that of the Lord Chancellor of England ;
and confirms all privileges, liberties, and immu
nities which had at any time been granted to them

27
by any Apostolic bull or bulls.' Mr. Skirrow, how- a.d.i 148-1545.
ever, has been explicit and exact in the abstract
which he supplies : ' The King granted and con
firmed that as well the Master, Brothers, Sisters,
and their successors, as all men there or thereafter
to dwell within the bounds or precincts of the Hos
pital (which are described), should be exempt, free,
and quit from all jurisdiction, secular and eccle
siastical, to be exercised over them other than by
the Chancellor of England and the Master of the
Hospital, or the deputies of the Master, and should
enjoy all their privileges, &c. ; and that they and
their successors, and all others dwelling within the
bounds and precincts, might enjoy the privileges,
&c, within the same bounds, &c.' The correction
of Ducarei's imperfect account will be seen to be
material in the two points of the rights of the
inhabitants of the Precinct and of the ecclesiastical
jurisdiction of the Master of the Hospital.
The great value which the inhabitants of the
Precinct attached to these privileges is attested by
their petition to Sir William Cecil, already men
tioned, which is published at length by Ducarel.
Their version of the passage above quoted from
the charter runs : ' Item, we the saide inhabitants,
by vertue of the saide Greate Charter and founda-
cion thereof, do say, that we shoulde inhabite and
dwell for evermore within the circuite or precincte
of the said Hospitall, as freely enjoyinge and
usinge within the saide precincte the pryveleges,
liberties, tuicions, and defences thereof without

28
l.d. H48-1545. any impeachment, molestation, hurte, or grevaunce
of any.' A subsequent ' item ' shows that the
. value of the Hospital property within the Precinct
had been greatly increased, according to the de
clared intention of the charter, by the attracting
to it of so large a number of residents : ' We say
that we have erected, buylte, and set up, to the
greate benefite of the Master, dyvers tenements
and howses at our owne charge, yea, in so muche
we have made whole lanes and stretes of the same
tenements where before was nothinge but dong-
hills, laystols, and voide groundes.' This petition
of the inhabitants was occasioned by the reported
intention of ' doctor Willson,' the Lay Master, to
sell the whole liberties of the Hospital to the Lord
Mayor and Corporation of London; and a striking
parallel to the feeling which it expresses is ex
hibited in the strong opposition offered by the
inhabitants of the Precinct, as well as by the
Chapter of the Hospital, to the contemplated sale
of the property to the Dock Company in 1824.
The subjoined extract from a private letter with
which, in 1865, the writer was favoured by a cler
gyman who at the time had been resident in St.
Katharine's as Chaplain and Curate of the Precinct,
may serve as an illustration : ' There was a most
strong and strongly expressed feeling against the
removal of the Church. By desire of the Master and
of Mr. Byng, and the Brothers and principal atten
dants upon the Church, I wrote a letter of remon
strance, which the Master enclosed to several

29
Members of the House of Commons.' The inhabi- a.d. 1148-1545.
tants of the Precinct celebrated the withdrawal of
the Dock Company's Bill by a general illumination,
amidst great rejoicing, on Tuesday evening, June 1,
1824. The period of prosperity for St. Katharine's Queen
, 1 . 1-111 n Katharineof
reached its greatest height under the patronage 01 Arragon.
Queen Katharine of Arragon, who appointed her
Spanish chaplain, George de Athequa, to the
Mastership. His Mastership dates from 1527, at
which time he had held the Bishopric of Llandaff
more than ten years. Both dignities were vacated
by him in 1536, a date which suggests the pro
bability that the vacancies were not caused by his
death. His successor at St. Katharine's was Gilbert
Latham, M. A., of whom no trace can be found after
1545. A letter is preserved in the Public Record
Office, under the date October 8, 1512, which
accompanied the gift of certain relics, including
part of the tomb of St. Katharine, sent to Henry
VIII. from Rome, ' out of respect for the Hospital
of St. Katharine.' The Guild of Saint Barbara,
of which a long and interesting account is given
by Strype and by Maitland, was founded in St.
Katharine's by Henry VIII. and Queen Katharine
in 1518 ; and the rank and number of its members
afford remarkable evidence of the importance of
the Collegiate Church at the time. The recollec
tions of a Sister of the Hospital, appointed by
Katharine of Arragon, supplied materials forty
years later for an account of the condition and

30
a.d. ins 1545. administration of the house as it then was; and
a fortunate accident, which placed the nomination
of another Sister in the hands of the Crown during
the short interval between the accession of Henry
VIII. and his marriage, has preserved the patent of
appointment in the Public Record Office, where
such patents granted by Queens Consort and
Dowager are not found. The existence of this
record of a Crown appointment affords some
guidance in tracing the fortunes of the foundation
through the latter half of the sixteenth century,
and will be further noticed. The warrant to the
Lord Chancellor for the issue of this Patent is
dated June 1, 1509 ; and by another warrant issued
on the preceding 9th of May, on the occasion of
the funeral of Henry VII., the sum of forty shillings
was ordered to be paid to the Sisters and Beads
women of St. Katharine's.
The history of St. Katharine's Hospital has
thus been given in outline from the date of its first
foundation in 1148 to the eve of the great ecclesias
tical changes which took place in the later years of
the reign of Henry VIII. Whatever may have
been the influence of those changes upon the Hos
pital founded by Matilda, re-founded by Eleanor,
regulated by Philippa, and erected into a Royal
Peculiar by Henry VI., it is abundantly evi
dent that at the period immediately preceding
the Reformation the position held by St. Katharine's
was that of an ecclesiastical corporation of the
English Church, with eleemosynary trusts attaching

31
to its revenues. The Mastership and other capitular a.d. 1148-1545.
appointments were recognised as ' Promotions Spi
ritual ' ; and for an opinion now current in some por
tions of society that the estates are a private trust
held in Royal patronage for the endowment of certain
dignified pensioners, with merely nominal duties,
there does not exist the faintest shadow of authority
in the early records of the Hospital, which supply,
on the contrary, its most complete and emphatic
refutation. Nate. — The Grant of the Mastership by Henry VII. to John
Preston, Clerk, in 1508, is preserved in the Public Record Office
(Patent Roll, 23 Henry VII. p. 2) :—
Rex omnibus &c. Sciatis quod de fidelitate et industria dilecti
nobis in Christo fratris Johannis Preston plenius confidentes Custo-
diam Hospitalis nostri Sanctsa Katerinse Virginia juxta Turrim
London cum omnibus et singulis exitibus proficuis omnium et singu-
lorum Spiritualium et temporalium possessionum Hospitalis prsedicti
commisimus eidem quoad ¦vixerit custodiendum. Ita tamen quod
in dicto Hospitali personalem faciat residenciam. Et mandamus
fratribus sororibus et omnibus aliis tenentibus et hominibus ejusdem
Hospitalis quatenus eidem sint audientes et attendentes. Et quod
permittant ipsum ordinare et disponere de bonis dicti Hospitalis sicut
melius secundum Deum et salutem animarum viderit expedire et
dicto Hospitali prodesse. Reservamus tamen nobis et regibus Angliae
nobis succedentibus potestatem ad visitandum per nostros et cor
rigendum negocia dicti Hospitalis infra et extra quociens necesse
fuerit et viderimus expedire.
Teste Rege apud Westm primo die Maii
per ipsum Regem &c.

32

II.

a.d. 1545-1547. Henry VIII, according to Fuller, made 'three
* meals ' of the Religious Houses and their estates.
The first of these was in 1536 ; the last, which he
' enjoyed the more because there was nothing
else left to consume,' was in 1545. If Dr. Ducarel
had remembered the epigrammatic summary of
the quaint old Church historian, he would have
avoided a singular mistake which has found its way
from his pages into several subsequent accounts of
St. Katharine's Hospital. He writes, in his pub
lished history, although in his earlier MS. the
sentence does not appear, —
The Act for the 'By an account of the revenues of this Hos-
of CoUeges. pital, taken from the Royal Survey, anno 26 Hen.
VIII., remaining in the First Fruits Office in the
Temple, it is very probable that this king intended
at that time to dissolve this house, which, it is
supposed, escaped a suppression at the request of
Queen Anne Boleyn, whom he had then lately
married.' The mention of the ' First Fruits Office ' ought
to have warned the antiquary' of the blundering
close which he was meditating for his sentence.
The valuation of 1534 is the great ' Valor Ecclesi-
asticus ' on the basis of which first-fruits and tenths

33
are paid to p this day to the Bounty Office, and a.d. 1545 1547.
included all Ecclesiastical revenues throughout the
country. Fifty years ago all College livings
appeared in the Oxford University Calendar, with
their values given from the ' King's Books,' and
the story of the device by which St. Katharine's
Hospital managed to throw off the burden of the
taxation imposed under this valuation will be
briefly noticed in its place. The 'Valor' was a
general taxing assessment, and had nothing to do
with the dissolution of the Religious Houses,
which began two years later. The intercession of
Anne Boleyn is a ' supposition ' which might merit
a place on the wralls of the Royal Academy, but
that it must have been made nine years after her
death, and that it proved of very doubtful efficacy
then. The Foundation evidently survives to this
day ; but it owes no thanks to Henry VIII. for its
life, and not many to his immediate successors.
The Act under which Religious Foundations
of the class including St. Katharine's were
granted to the Crown was not passed till 1545.
It is only published in abstract in the ordinary
volumes of the Statutes at Large, and the writer
quotes from a transcript made from the ' Statutes
of the Realm, III. 988-993,' where it appears as
37 Henry VIII. cap. 4, entitled ' An Acte for
dissolucon of Colleges.' He specifies this fact
more particularly, because Mr. Skirrow, in his
Report, makes no mention of the Act of Henry
VIII. , but supposes that the question turns upon

34
ad. 1545-1347. the Act for Chantries Collegiate of 1547, with
which the historical argument relating to St.
Katharine's ha,s never during the recent discussion
been connected. Powers given by an Act of 1547
could not have been exercised in February 1545-6,
which is the date of the most important document
in the case. That the powers so exercised were
conferred by the Act of 1545 appears to the writer
the true explanation of the immediately subsequent
history. But as he is not qualified to discuss a
complicated question of law, and as it would be an
impertinence on his part to offer any opinion of
his own for the guidance of readers of these pages,
he proposes to state the evidence supplied by pub
lished documents and copies of State papers in his
possession, in the hope that the examination of the
subject may be undertaken by those who are able
to form a judgment upon it. It may, however, be
permitted to him to suggest, as a possible solution
of the difficulties presented by the historical evi
dence, that the operation of the Act of 1545 was
perhaps found in the early years of Elizabeth's reign
to be practically barred in relation to St. Katharine's
by the Great Charter of Henry VI. The matter is
now, indeed, one only of antiquarian interest ; if,
at least, the rumour already mentioned should
prove to be in accordance with fact. It is said
that the Queen has appointed a Clergyman in
Priest's Orders to the vacant Mastership of the
Hospital. In this event, the reorganisation of the
Chapter according to its ancient constitution will

35
have become complete; and as the estates of the a.d. 1545 1547.
Foundation are practically, if not literally, unim
paired, it may seem almost superfluous to ask
whether there has been in time past any break or
parenthesis in its history or administration. Eccle
siastical or philanthropic reformers may consider
themselves more usefully occupied in devising
schemes for the future of the Hospital, and in find
ing some work for the Foundation to do, now that
its ancient Precinct is irrecoverably under water.
Others who, with the writer, find an attraction in
the records of its past, may not be altogether un-
profitably engaged, especially if they can remind
their more busy and practical contemporaries of
one of the fundamental laws of the Hospital, which
reserves to the Queens of England the absolute
power of framing, ' and even of changing,' the
rules and articles of its administration, ' ad rnelio-
rationem Hospitalis pro?.dicti.' There was no Queen
of England in 1825 ; nor could there have been any
such confident assurance then as that which is
established now, that the ' melioratio Hospitalis
prosdicti' would have been the first thought of the
Sovereign Patron in the exercise of the regulating
power. Such an object was certainly far enough
from the thoughts of either Sovereigns or their
advisers in the sixteenth century, when the events
about to be noticed took place.
The Act of 1545 had for its object to bring
into the power of the King all ' colleges, free-
chapelles, chauntries, hospitalis, fraternities, bro-
D 2

36
a.d. 1545-1547. therheddes, guyldes, and stipendiarie prestes, hav
ing perpetuity for ever,' with all their estates
wheresoever situated. Its first provisions were
designed to sweep away a network of legal devices
by which the possessions of these houses had in
many, instances been nominally conveyed to other
holders. There is no evidence that St. Katharine's
Hospital could thus far have been brought within
the scope of the Act. But its following clauses
take a much wider range. Its sixth section recites
that ' where also at this present tyme there ben a
greate nomber of chauntries, hospitalis, colleges,
frechapelles, fraternities, brotherheddes, guildes,
and stipendiarie prestes, havinge perpetuitye for
ever,' who have misapplied their corporate revenues
' to the greate displeasure of Almightie God, and to
the discontentation of the Kinge our Soveraigne
Lorde ' ; the last-named result being perhaps more
certain, or at least more easily proved, than the
former ; and provides accordingly that the King
may at his pleasure appoint commissioners to enter
into any of the Houses or Foundations aforesaid, to
take possession of them in the King's behalf : from
which date of entry the whole estates of such House
shall become absolutely vested in the Crown. The
next section orders that all colleges, &c, and their
possessions thus vested in the King, shall be under
survey of the Court of Augmentations. The
thirteenth section provides for the abatement of
Tenths and First-fruits on lands so vested, and this
point will require further notice.

This Act appears by its earlier clauses to have a.d. 1545 1547.
been intended to take effect from Christmas Day,
1545. The State-paper to which attention must
now be directed bears the dates of February 27th
and March 1st, 1545 (1545-6), and thus almost
immediately follows on the effective operation of
the Act. Its heading shows it to belong to the
' Augmentation Office,' under the class ' Surveys
of Priories, &c.,' and its reference is ' Miscell.
Books, vol. 408.' It does not appear that Ducarel
had seen this paper, or that it has ever been pub
lished. The writer is indebted for his knowledge of
it to the courtesy of Stuart A. Moore, Esq., through
whose search in the Public Record Office many
other papers relating to St. Katharine's not noticed
by Ducarel have been brought to light. Annexed
to the paper is the subjoined letter, dated ' At the
Wardrobe, the vith of June, 1600,' signed, ' Yr
lovinge frende, J. Fortescu,' and endorsed, ' To my
lovinge frende Mr. Robert Levesey Esqre at Tooting -
beake in the County of Surrey.' It runs : —
'After my hartie commendacions. Wher I
have bene enformed that there remayneth in yo1
custodie an olde booke of Surveye or Rentall of all
the landes and tenementes belonginge to the late
Hospitali of St. Katherines next the towre of
London dated the first daye of Marche in the
xxxvijth yere of the raigne of Kinge Henry the
viijth. And also one Inventorie of all the G-oodes
founde wthin the said Hospitali of St. Katherins
the xxvijth of Febr. in the said xxxvijth yere

38
a.d. 1545-1547. of the raigne of King Henry the viiith wch rentall
and Inventorie is hir Majesties evidence and of
right belongeth to hir highnes, and ought to have
remayned amongest other hir Majesties Recordes in
the late Court of Augmentacion at Westminster
for hir Majesties service. These are therfore to
requier you upon receit hereof to deliver the same
booke of Survey or Rentall and Inventorie unto
William Mynterowe keper of Hir Majesties Re
cordes in the said Court of Augmentacion there to
remaine for hir Majesties service taking a bill of
his hande acknowledginge the receit thereof. And
the same bill wth these my letters shalbe yor
dischardge in that behalf. At the Wardrobe &c.'
. In the absence of the evidence which would
conclusively connect the ' Survey ' above mentioned
with the Act of 1545, were a Commission under
the Great Seal as ordered by the Act known to
exist for entry upon St. Katharine's, the argument
based upon these papers must be one of probability
only. No such commission, as far as the writer is
aware, has yet been catalogued or found in the
Record Office.
The first question arising upon the papers must
be by what means they were originally withdrawn
from the Augmentation Office, and to this a pro
bable reply is furnished by Mr. Skirrow's Report.
Robert Levesey was a defendant in a Chancery suit
instituted by the Hospital to recover possession
of its estate at Danley in Kent, held adversely by
the assignees of a lease under pretext of a patent

39
of reversion for the fee simple granted by Edward a.d. 1545-1547.
VI. It does not appear whether this patent was
put in evidence, and it may be doubted whether
the Queen would have paid any more attention to
it than her sister had done to another patent of
Edward's about fifty years before : but the plea
may throw some light on the history of the Foun
dation. It is observable that the writer of the
letter quoted above describes St. Katharine's as
' the late Hospitali,' and that he assumes its ' Ren
tall' to belong to the Queen as of right in the
Court of Augmentation, i.e. under the provisions of
the Act of 1545 or other Statutes. The Valuation
for First-fruits, &c, was otherwise in the Queen's
possession. In the Survey for the Valor Ecclesiasticus, 1534,
two items of receipt from the Crown are included
in the revenues of St. Katharine's, viz. a payment
of £10 annually from the Hanaper, and one of
£3. 13s. Ad. from the Exchequer. In reference
to the latter, an easily-detected misprint is found
both in Ducarel and in the printed volumes of the
Valor, but the amounts, which appear again in the
Survey of 1545, are correctly given by Mr. Skirrow,
who copied from the transcript furnished to him
by the writer. Both these payments have ceased,
and from the return of the gross revenues of the
Hospital under Elizabeth, which is less than either
of the former amounts, though not by this exact
sum, it is probable that they had then been dis
continued. Upon the Hanaper payment, which

40
a.d. 1545-1547. was for a Chantry of St. Fabian and St. Sebastian*
no question arises, but the Exchequer payment
was a compensation rent of five marks and a half
secured by a Charter of Edward II. for land of the
Hospital, ' taken for the use of the King to enlarge
the Tower Ditch.' The discontinuance of such a
payment by the Crown, without any explanatory
record, is a fact consistent with the supposition
that the Crown had entered into possession of the
entire estates. On what other hypothesis Queen
Elizabeth's order, and its accompanying balance-
sheet, for the application of the whole income of
the Mastership to the expenses of the Tower can be
accounted for, it remains for those who hold an
opposite opinion to show; although perhaps it
might be urged with some reason that there is no
accounting for what Queen Elizabeth from time
to time might choose to order; and it is evident
that in this extraordinary scheme Her Highness
was either foiled or was pleased to change her
mind. Sir Thomas Seymour, Knt., Lord Admiral of
England, was the first Lay Master of St. Katha
rine's. He is said to have been appointed by the
Queen Dowager, Katharine Parr, whom he after
wards married, and whom he survived. The date
of this appointment is given as 1 Edward VI,, 1547,
and his patent is not found in the Public Record
Office. It is doubtful whether any argument can
be safely founded on the transactions of so un
settled a period as the opening of this reign; and

41
while the appointment of Seymour by the Queen a.d. 1545-1547.
Dowager must be. regarded as a significant fact,
the equally significant omission of his name in later
documents must be taken into account. The
patents of Sir Francis Flemyng, granted by Edward,
of Dr. Francis Mallett, a priest, by Mary, and of
Thomas Wilson, by Elizabeth, all direct that the
person appointed shall have and hold the master
ship as freely as had Gilbert Lathom, late master
there, to whose name Wilson's patent adds those
of Francis Mallett, D.D., and Francis Flemyng,
Knight. Mallett's patent would, of course, make no
mention of either of the Lay Masters preceding
him, especially as Flemyng had been compelled to
surrender his patent as invalid; but the omission of
Seymour's name in both the Lay Masters' patents
is important, and can hardly be explained by the
fact of his having been executed for high treason.
As no true patroness under the terms of the
Charters could exist from the death of Katharine
Parr till the accession of James I., the right of
patronage necessarily was vested in the Crown
during that eventful half-century, and with the
coming in of the Stuarts a new period of English
Church -history begins.
The ' olde book ' recovered at the end of The Survey of
St. Katharine.
Elizabeth's reign from Robert Levesey is a docu
ment of especial interest in the history of St. Ka
tharine's Hospital, and gives a very clear insight
into the condition of the Foundation in 1545. Its
total gross revenues are returned as £364. 12s. 6d.;

42
..d. 1545-1547. its expenditure, inclusive of the yearly Tenths pay
able to the Crown, was £210. 6s. 5c?.; the surplus
being regarded as the nett value of the Mastership.
In the valuation for First-fruits, &c, deductions had
been allowed for the stipends of the officials of the
estates and precinct, but these amounts are in
cluded in the above return of expenditure.
The Master was, as has been already stated,
Gilbert Lathom, Master of Arts, a priest. He is
designated by the style of ' Mr.,' while the other
priests resident as members of the Foundation are
described by the ordinary clerical title of ' Sir,'
and were probably, therefore, non-graduates. They
were five in number: Sir William Bowtell, Sir
.Richard Tate, Sir Valentyne (sic), Sir John Clobbe,
and Sir Roger Kotenby. In the inventory of the
' Prestes and Clerkes Chambers ' all except the
last-named have ' chambers,' but in the place of
Sir Roger Kotenby one ' George Gil son ' is given
as occupant of a room. For each of the five the
Hospital is charged, 'for his stipend, mete, and
drynke by yere,' £8, except that for Sir William
Bowtell, or Bothille, who is specially described as
'being Curate there,' the amount is £9; a sum,
it will be observed, which corresponds with the
endowment of the Hanaper Chantry after deduc
tion of its Tenth. This return of five resident
Priests, in addition to the Master, is exactly what
the record of endowments would lead us to expect.
Besides the three Brothers of the original Foun
dation, two other Priests had been incorporated,

43
of whom one certainly, and probably both, wore a.d. 1545-1547.
the habit of the House. One of these was the
Hanaper Chaplain of Edward III. ; the other was
endowed in the reign of Richard II. ; and though
the priests of 1545 disappear, the fortunes of
the second Chantry or prebend supply matter for
an inquiry of some practical interest. If it can be
shown that the estate which formed the endow
ment of this benefice has been preserved, and is
still in the possession of the Hospital, a new ques
tion will necessarily arise. If the endowment was
a Chantry, how did it escape alienation under the
Act of 1547? If it was not a Chantry, what was
its nature? The first requisite is, if possible, to
identify the estate.
1. Ducarel writes explicitly that all the chantries
belonging to the Hospital, together with all others
in the kingdom, were given to the Crown under
the Chantries Act of 1 Edward VI. He has pre
viously recorded the foundation of the Hanaper
Chantry by Edward III. in 1376, and at a date
two years later, 2 Richard II., he relates as
follows : —
' Robert de Dentone, clerk, obtained from King
Richard the Second a license to found a Chantry in
this Hospital, and granted two messuages situated
in the parish of Barkyngchurch for the mainte
nance of one Chantry priest, who was to say mass
daily, and who by this benefaction became an
additional Chaplain to this Hospital ; and was
directed by the King's Charter to wear the same

44
a.d. 1545-1.H7. habit as the other brothers of the said house.'
The marginal note to this paragraph is ' Denton's
Chantry.' 2. 'Berkyngchirche' is described in the Charter
as situate ' in civitate nostra Lond.,' and is certainly
the parish of Allhallows, Barking, which adjoins
Tower Hill on the west. Turning to the Schedule
of the Hospital property reported to the Charity
Commissioners, the first item will be found with
out any ' Observations,' as in all other cases,
annexed to show how the estate was acquired:
' A piece of ground having a frontage to Tower
Hill, formerly part of the site of 19 houses in
Trinity Square and Barking Churchyard.' The
future annual value of this property, the lease of
which has now about 22 years to run, is given as
£4,000, and its importance to the revenues of the
Foundation is therefore evident, while even- the
Royal Commissioners must allow that it has some
' local character ' associating it with East London.
3. The ' Rentall ' of 1545 contains, in a separate
division headed 'In Barkynge parishe,' a list of
this exact number of ' 19 houses,' with the names
of their occupiers. Their yearly rental was then
£12. 4s. The identification of the Denton Endow
ment is thus complete, and it may reasonably be
asked why this is not stated by Mr. Skirrow in
his Schedule. Perhaps the answer may be that no
other title save that of unbroken possession for
five centuries can be shown by the Hospital. Dr.
Mallett complains that Sir Thomas Seymour had

45
destroyed many records belonging to the Founda- a.d. 1545-1547.
tion. If he contrived to destroy such records as
would have enabled the plunderers of chantries to
seize upon the Tower Hill Estate, to which then
the Hospital could show a title by possession for
170 years, he deserves to be ranked at the present
day among the chief benefactors to St. Katharine's.
But it appears very doubtful whether Ducarel is
justified in describing the Denton Chaplain as a
Chantry priest, or his benefice as a Chantry, at all.
The Latin Charter, as given by Ducarel, is in its
reciting clauses obscure and verbally inaccurate ;
but the mention of a Chantry (Cantaria) is not
found in it, while in Edward's Grant from the
Hanaper the word is frequently repeated. In one
point both grants coincide. The nomination of
both priests is vested in the Chapter; and if the
Denton Chaplain be regarded not as a Chantry
priest, but as a fourth Brother of the Hospital, to
be elected by the Chapter instead of being appointed
by the Patroness, the preservation of the Estate
may be explained as not falling under the Act of
1547. The priests resident in 1545 may thus have
been the four Brothers and the St. Fabian's or
Hanaper Chaplain, the last-named ' being Curate
there.' The nature of the Foundation would require a
distinct separation between the male and female
sides of the building. In later times, as in earlier,
the Sisters' Close with the Beadswomen's Houses
was on the south side of the Church, the cloister

46
a.d. 1545-1547. or quadrangle lying on the north side. This ar
rangement might readily suggest a difference of
designation between the ' College ' and the ' Hos
pital,' and such a difference will appear as we
follow the evidence. In the financial statement of
1545, however, the charges of the house are given
in the order of rank on the Foundation. The
names of the Priests are succeeded by the items:
' iij Susters every one viijU- besides
their howses .... £24 0 0'
' x bedewomen every one xa ob.
every weke besides their
houses  £22 15 0'
while the next entry returns to the College or
boarding division of the buildings: —
' vj scollers, their mete drynk cloth,
and other necessaries . . £24 0 0 '
The names of the ' Scollers ' are not given at
all : those of the Sisters may perhaps be traced in
the ' Rentall,' but cannot be identified. More
probably the four names, ' Moder Valantyne, An
Bride, Elizabeth Westborne,' and 'An Hill,' are
those of other women who had lodgings in the
Sisters' Close. The tenements occupied by them
are valued at £2. 5s. Ad. annually, as will be seen
by the curious extract from the ' Rentall ' to be
subsequently quoted. Passing by the list of offi
cial stipends or management charges, and the
estimate of £20 annually for reparations, a do
mestic item of interest deserves insertion in this
place: —

47
' To fower ordynary servauntes that a.d. 1545-1547.
is to sey, the steward of the
howse, the botler, the coke
and undercoke wth mete drynk
and theire wages . . . . £30 0 0 '
' Wyne wax and other charges for the Churche
by estymacion ' stand at £3. 6s. 8^., and ' therely
tentes,' i.e. ' the yearly tenths,' close the column
with £31. lis. hd.
From these details a sufficiently distinct picture
can be obtained of the collegiate life within ' T hos
pitali hows whereyn Mr Gilbert Latham Mr of the
said Hospitali the broders clerkes scollers and
servauntes lodge, with ij gardens and yarde or
courte,' and also in the enclosure 'by the south
side of the Church, called the Susters' Close.' The
Master lived with the fraternity, not as yet having
a separate house of his own ; and the ' Hospital
House,' of which unfortunately no drawing has
been preserved, must have been the building thus
described by Ducarel: —
'Adjoining to the Church on the north side
was a magnificent timber building of great an
tiquity. This was the Master's lodge, but the
destroying hand of time having reduced it to a
ruinous condition, another was built for him upon
the same spot in 1751.'
The last clause of this sentence is precise, and
the ground plan shows the position to have been on
the north side of the College quadrangle, of which
the eastern side was formed by the Cloister or

48
a.d. 1545-1547. Houses of the Brothers. Two plates in Ducarel
show these as they existed before 1755, when they
were taken down; and from these and from the
Rentall and Inventory combined, some idea may
be formed of the ' Hospital House.' The ground
plan and engravings of the Church indicate that
the building described as the Chapter House and
Commissary's Court in 1779 was formerly the
Duke of Exeter's Chapel, and thus all the ' vestries,'
evidently chambers of some size, would seem to
have formed part of the Hospital House.
From the ' Rentall ' we have the list, ' In the
Vestre,' of the Church plate, followed by that of
' Howsehold Plate.' After these, ' In the Hawll,'
is a list of the ordinary furniture of dining tables
and forms, which appears out of place, and rather
to belong to the inventory by the ' preysers.' The
latter paper supplies the following list of rooms : —
' The Chamber over the Vestre.
The Utter Chamber over the Vestre.
The Nether Vestre.'
As the appraisers are here dealing with vestments
and Church furniture, ' the Qwere ' follows next in
order ; after which the list proceeds to
' The grete Parlour.
The litell Parlour.
The Prestes and Clerkes Chambers.
First in the Dorter :
George Gilson's chamber.
Sr John dupe's chamber.

49
In the Cloister : a.d. 1545-1547.
Sr William Bothille's chamber.
Sr Valentyne's chamber.
Sr Richard Nawtes alias Tate chamber.
The boies chamber.
' The Buttery ' and ' the Kechyn ' follow ; and
' John Kynges chamber ' closes the Inventory — in
which, as will be observed, the Master's chamber
is not specified, although he is stated to have been
in residence. His personal furniture may have
been regarded as exempt ; but the addition of
this room must be made in estimating the extent
of the Hospital House, which must have been
considerable. The ' preysers sworne ' did not enter the Sisters' ^he sisters'
Close. No reference to their lodgings or property
is found in the ' Inventory,' although it professes
to include ' all such goodes as were founde withyn
thospitall of Seynte Katerynes ' ; and this fact is
valuable as showing the practically distinct cha
racter of the female side of the establishment.. In
the ' Rentall ' no valuation is made of the lodgings
either of Sisters or Beadswomen, but the parti
culars given are of sufficient interest for insertion
without abridgement :
' W'yn the said Susters Cloce :
The said Susters iij lodgynges be coveryd
with lede.
Moder Valantyne ij chambers . .30
An Bride a wod hows under the same . 1 9
E

50
a.d. 1545-1547. ' Elizabeth Westbourne a chamber and a
cove . . . . . .17
An Hill at thest ende of the saide iij
Susters lodgynges ij chambers w* a
litell kechyn . . . .50
Summa unius quartern lis. Ad.
Summa anni integri 45s. Ad.
The x. bedewymmen have a long (sic) under the
same iij Susters lodginges and An Hill ij cham
bers ij litell halles and every one a chawmber.'
The meaning of the latter sentence is not clear,
and there is no engraving of the Sisters' houses ;
but in the ground plan of 1781 there are houses in
the Sisters' Close besides their own lodgings, chiefly
at the east end. The ' Sisters and Beadswomen's
houses ' are in one building, as above described, and
the ground floor may have been occupied by their
separate ' chambers,' two little halls, and a ' long'
common living room. No indication of any inten
tion to disturb this female community is found
in this or in any other record. The only hint that
some toll might be taken from them is in the
words ' coveryd with lede,' which appears also in the
notice of the Church, its porch, and the cloister.
The lead was valuable, and that it may have been
removed is suggested by the heavy item of estimate
for plumber's work, £150 out of a total of £545,
in an account for dilapidations a century later.
Whatever was the fate of the ' College ' on the
northern side of the Church, and its inmates, the
common home of the Sisters and Beadswomen

51
remained unchanged. Their stipends were regu- a.d. 1545-1547.
larly paid, such as they were, and Sir Thomas
Wilson, as will be seen, relied on the evidence
afforded by their presence in support of the startling
plea which he set up about twenty years later in
his own behalf.
It is impossible to overlook the strange contrast
which the home of these quiet ladies and their
humbler associates presented to the calamitous
fortunes of the residents on the northern side of the
Church. There they remained, by their ordinances
a community of nursing women in the midst of an
ever-increasing population. There they might have
remained still, but for the Dock Scheme of 1825 ;
a scheme which forty years later no one would
have thought of forming even on grounds of com
mercial convenience. A central nursing Sisterhood
in the East End of London : the ladies dignified
by their capitular rank, still more dignified in their
direct association with their royal patronesses ; the
working nurses placed under their superintendence ;
the whole body, moved by the higher influences
which actuate voluntary associations of ladies in
our own time for the like purposes, distin
guished, if not by Queen Philippa's habit and the
Wheel of St. Katharine, though even these might
well become them, yet by the guiding motive of
Queen Philippa's maxim — that loving Christian
work like theirs must influence for good the crowded
population round them. What might not such a
community be effecting now ? — What would it not
B 2

52
a.d. 1545-1547. be effecting under the eye of the Queen — whose
special care for the East End of London has been
evidenced too often and too plainly to need any
detailed mention here — if St. Katharine's Docks had
never been constructed, and the Royal Hospital
and Free Chapel of St. Katharine near the Tower
had still occupied its old historical site ?
The details furnished by the ' Rentall ' and the
' Inventory ' respecting the Church Plate and the
Ecclesiastical Vestments of St. Katharine's in 1545
are full and interesting. A very imperfect copy of
part of this paper is found in Ducarei's Appendix,
taken from a Harleian MS. The resident appraisers,
acting under the direction of the Bailiff of the
Precinct, were assisted by ' William Norce, of
Basyng Lane, in London, Vestment maker,' whose
signature is appended to the Inventory. The
description of the vestments is thus guaranteed as
exact; their valuation possibly representing a trade
price for their purchase. The list may be worth
examination by those who are skilled in ritual
detail, because of some apparent variations both
from the Sarum and the Roman uses as regards
colours, especially when it is remembered that the
Spanish Chaplain of Katharine of Arragon had held
the mastership for several years, vacating the office
only in 1536.
The inhabi- Besides the information supplied by the docu-
Precinct. e ments thus recovered in 1600 respecting the
Ecclesiastical Community of St. Katharine's, some
knowledge as to the condition of the Precinct and

53
its inhabitants may be obtained from them. As a.d. 1545-1547.
all the inhabitants were tenants of the Hospital,
and as the jurisdiction was exempt and peculiar,
the ordinary parochial offices would not exist, and
the administration of the Precinct would rest with
the officials of the Foundation. Two lists, one
supplied by the First Fruits return of 1534, the
other by the Survey of 1545, furnish particulars of
this official staff, whose stipends were paid by the
Hospital, and of whom some would also be charged
with the management of its country estates. No
identity of office between Hayles (1534) and Husey
(1545) is evident; but Husey's name in 1545 fol
lows immediately on Sir John Baker's : —
1534. 1545.
Feoda annuatim soluta
diversis personis sub-
scriptis videlt :
Magro Baker Senescallo To' Sir John. Baker
magno . . . xls Knyght, for bis
fee ... 2 0 0
Magro Marcelino Hayles xls-
Magro Kyrkby Recep- The Receivor of
tori redd, ibidem . vi1- the said landes
for his fee w*
mete and drynk . 6 13 4
Auditori . . . xls- The Stewardes fee
of the landes .200
Thomse Walton, Ballivo The bailif for his
libertatis . . . xl8- fee . . .200
Anthony Husey,
gentilman, for
exercisyng the
spiritual! juris
diction . .10 0
The Receiver in 1545 was John Laurence, who
signs the ' Rentall ' ' per me, Johannem Laurence,
receptorem ibidem' ; the ' Bailif of Seynte Katerynes'

54
a.d. 1545-1547. was Thomas Walton, as in 1534. He lived in the
' Grete Court,' and paid 33s. Ad. annual rent. Of the
other ' preysers sworne,' ' Nycholas Torner ' was the
' parish clerke,' who lived in a house adjoining the
Bailiff's, and paid 20s. rent ; and the remaining
name of William Stephens does not appear as a
tenant. ' John Laurence ' held ' a lece ' at a rent
of £3. 6s. 8d. 'in the lane.' Sixty-six separate
' leces ' were held by tenants of the Hospital within
the Precinct, and twenty-five other tenants are
named without the note of ' a lece ' annexed. Four
leases in the adjoining parish of St. Botolph, Aldgate,
are also scheduled, and their rents, added to those
within the Precinct itself, exclusive of the Barking
and other City estates, give a total of £168. 9s. Od.
One of the leases above mentioned is described as
' in Hammes,' and three more are said to include
' gardens in the Flemmynges Churchyard that is
the forth Churcheyard.' Three Churchyards are
scheduled with the Church itself; and these extracts
from the rental of 1545 show that Ducarel was un
acquainted with the document, since he states that
the name of ' Hammes ' as a portion of the Precinct
was not acquired till the capture of the Castle of
Hames in France in the reign of Philip and Mary,
1558; and that the 'Flemish Churchyard' was
' appropriated in the reign of Queen Elizabeth ' by
Her Majesty ' for the burials ' of the ' poor Flemings
coming to reside upon this spot.' Dutch or Flemish
names occur frequently in the rent-roll of 1545.
Only two persons of title are found among the

55
tenants: ' Sir John Cotes, Knyght,' whose yearly a.d. 1545-1547.
rental is 40s., and ' the Lady Pecok,' whose ' lece'
at tenpence a quarter is not the clerical error which
might be supposed, and suggests a possibility of
Court favour.
The memorial of the inhabitants of the Precinct
to Sir William Cecil in 1565 shows that they were
then a body of some consideration among the City
and adjacent parishes. Earlier evidence pointing
in the same direction is found in the First Fruits
return, where an income of £9 of ecclesiastical
revenue appears under the heading ' Rectoria ec-
clesiae dicti Hospitalis unacum decimis ibidem per
annum, ix.1.' No such item appears in the Rental
of 1545; and in the later balance-sheet of 1560,
submitted to Queen Elizabeth, ' the profitts of the
Easter boke ' are distinctly said to be ' not ratyd
in the former some ' of the Hospital revenues therein
above returned. These are evidently parochial or
quasi-parochial payments by the inhabitants to
the Church, and correspond with those ' for all
buryalls, chrystenings, mariages, and iiii offeringe
dayes,' which, with 'clerk's wages,' are alleged in
1565 to be paid ' orderly as other parishes do within
the Citie of London, saving priyie tithes which we
never paide. ' The annual sum of £9 in 1534 will thus
be shown with the highest probability to represent
the value of the benefice from fees. As it was not
a ' Rectory,' and as there were no ' tithes,' the
heading in the Valor may probably have been a
general form for the return ; and no other explana-

56
a.d. 1545-1547. tion of the item is apparent. It is not an assessment
of the Hospital House and land, as this item is
separately given without any annexed value : ' nil,'
because it is ' in hand.' The great adjacent
parishes of Stepney and Whitechapel appear in the
Valor Ecclesiasticus as worth £40 and £31 respec
tively, tithes included ; and a Church income of £9
in 1534 exclusive of tithe must accordingly repre
sent a body of parishioners of no mean condition
or fortune. The Charter of Henry VI. during the
century of its operation had proved very effectual
in advancing the prosperity of the Precinct, as well
as in augmenting the revenues of the Founda
tion. Ducarel attributes the preservation of the re
venues of. the Hospital in 1565 to the ' spirited
petition,' already mentioned, of the inhabitants of
the Precinct, who were, he thinks, ' greatly alarmed
at the attempt upon their rights and privileges'
which they supposed Dr. Wilson then to have
designed. This, according to Ducarel, was 'a
plan for securing to himself all the estates of this
house within the precincts of the Hospital.' His
account of the history at this period is so in
accurate in detail that this statement, unsupported
as it is by any external evidence, and at variance
with the representations of the memorialists, cannot
be accepted as correct. The inhabitants charge
Wilson with an intention to sell to the City the
' whole liberties, rights, franchyses, royalties, and
pryveleges belonginge to the saide howse or Hos-

57
pitall,' and not 'the estates within the precincts.' a.d. 1545-1547.
They are afraid of being brought within the juris
diction of the City, and thus of being ' further
taxed, burdened, and charged by the Citie with
new orders, laws, imposicions, taxes, payments,
and other dueties, which they will clayme and
seeke at our handes.' The interference of the
inhabitants for the preservation of the Hospital,
as Ducarel relates it, is at least a nearer approach
to true history than his previous fiction about ' the
request of Queen Anne Boleyn;' while his sup
position that Wilson intended to sell the Precinct
estate, unless it is a merely careless blunder in
writing, is inconsistent with any belief that the
power of the Crown over the Hospital was no more
extensive than it had been before the Dissolution of
Colleges under the Act of 1545. The assertions of
Wilson himself are conclusive as to the view in
which he chose to regard the character of the
Foundation in his time, and it will be seen in a
succeeding chapter what those assertions were.
The hypothesis suggested by the writer, as one
upon which the apparently conflicting facts in the
history of St. Katharine's during the period be
tween 1545 and the accession of James I. may be
reconciled, is the following : —
That the Foundation did actually pass into the
hands of the Crown under the Act of 1545 for the
Dissolution of Colleges; that the entry and survey
of February 1545-6 was made under the powers
of that Act, and that the 'College' or clerical

58
a.d. 1545-1547. portion of the establishment was dissolved, the
whole revenues, subject to certain charges to be
hereafter specified, being held to be in possession
of, and disposable by, the Crown : but that the
rights of the civil community of the Precinct had
been so securely established by the Great Charter
of Henry VI., and were so important and so reso
lutely maintained, as to bar the permanent effect
of the Act of Henry VIIL, and to compel Queen
Elizabeth to recognise the existence of the ancient
Foundation, and while secularising it to the fullest
extent in her power, to re-establish it in form with
all its ancient privileges except one which had been
long in abeyance, by a renewal of the Great
Charter of Henry VI. which was surrendered only
for the purpose of that renewal in order to put an
end by compromise to a long conflict between
Wilson and the City.
The survey of St. Katharine's is dated on the
last days of February, 1545-6. Eleven months
later, on the 28th of January, 1546-7, Henry VIIL
died. No record of any events relating to St.
Katharine's Hospital during the interval is known
to exist; and immediately upon the accession of
Edward VI. the period of the Lay Masters began.

59

III.
Sir Thomas Seymour, the first Lay Master of a.d. 1547-1565.
St. Katharine's Hospital, was beheaded on Tower The Lay
Hill two years after his appointment. The exe- '"'"'''
cution took place on the 20th of March ; and
Sir Francis Fleming, Lieutenant- General of the
King's Ordnance, who succeeded him, obtained his
patent on the 2nd of November following. The long
delay deserves notice, as the revenues of the Master
ship are expressly granted to Fleming from and
after the preceding Michaelmas only. He was
deprived of the office by Mary, and compelled to
surrender his patent, according to Ducarel, in 1557 ;
but the marginal note upon the patent itself, de
claring it to be annulled, gives the date as July
20th in the sixth year of Mary, which would place
the surrender in 1558, and within four months of
the Queen's death ; and would show that the contest
for the possession of the Mastership lasted almost
throughout her reign. For on July 20th, 1554 —
the date is plain both from the original patent and
its later recital, ' vicesimo die Julii anno regni nostri
secundo,1 although Ducarel gives it as March 2nd,
1554 — the Queen had appointed to the Mastership
her Chaplain, Francis Mallett, D.D., alleging in the
patent that the said office. ' quibusdam legittimis de
causis ad prcesens vacat etin nostra dispositione pleno

60
a.d. 1547-1565. jure existiV This patent in its turn was surren
dered and cancelled under Elizabeth; but the
'lawful causes' for which her sister had declared
Edward's patent in favour of Fleming to be null
and void are sufficiently obvious. Fleming's ap
pointment had been made by virtue of a dispensing
clause which Mary did not acknowledge as valid.
The office had been granted to him although he was
not in holy orders : ' licet ipse clericali ordine minime
insignitus sed forsan uxoratus sit vel fuerit ;' and
this ' any "laws, acts, statutes, customs, ordinances,
foundations, directions (erectionibus), provisions,
prohibitions, or restrictions whatsoever to the con
trary aforetime published, ordained, and provided,
&c, notwithstanding.' Thus for the first time of
" which any record is known to exist the dispensation
for a Lay Master appears in the history of St.
Katharine's Hospital. A common ' non obstante r
clause is inserted in the patent of Henry Trevylyan,
clerk, granted by Edward IV. in 1461, for a copy
of which the writer is indebted to the courtesy of
Sir Charles Trevelyan. A comparison of the earlier
and later grants, which is thus made practicable,
shows that the strong reserving clause for the per
formance of all the obligations of the Foundation
belongs to the period of the Lay Masters. It is not
found in the patent of 1461, and in Fleming's it
runs thus: ' Ita tamen quod divinus cultus elemosine
et alia in eadem domo sive hospitali prwdicta debite
fenda propter hoc (the dispensation) nullatenus de-
fraudentur, sed in omnibus laudabiliter deservianlur.

61
et observeniur ac omnia onera domus sive hospitalis a.d.1547-1565.
illius consueta debite supportentur.' This clause has
remained in all later grants of the Mastership thus
far known. It would seem that the dispensation
in Fleming's case had been worded with sufficient
strength and explicitness ; but at a later time its
defences are found guarded by even more elaborate
and forcible expression for the security of Sir
Thomas Wilson. It was continued in its essential
provisions to our own time, and appears, though no
longer fenced in by so formidable an array of legal
terms, in Sir Herbert Taylor's patent, granted by
George III. It may perhaps also have found a
place in the patent of the late Mr. Ashley : but this
has not been seen by the writer, who has no means
of ascertaining how far a custom of three centuries '
might give legal force to the exercise by a subject
— even though a Queen-Dowager — of the dispensing
power. The point, however, may now be assumed
to be merely one of historical inquiry, as it is under
stood that the Queen has put an end to dispensations
and Lay Deans together.
To Dr. Mallett we are indebted for one of the
most characteristic and interesting narratives which
the history of the Hospital affords. His own
description of himself would lead us to picture
him as the gentlest and most forbearing of men,
harassed into sickness and the absolute necessity
for change of air by a host of refractory parishioners
in the Precinct ; but some graphic details elsewhere
related present Queen Mary's Chaplain to us as a

62
a.d. 1547-1566. verv '¦malleus hcereticoruml and a stern restorer of
the ancient order. On his appointment to St.
Katharine's he found the Hospital charged with
the payment of First-fruits and Tenths, as had
been the case in 1545; and in consideration of
the burdens imposed on him by the neglected
condition in which the buildings came into his
hands, as well as for other reasons, he obtained from
Queen Mary, May 23rd, 1555, a grant of discharge
from the payment of First-fruits — i.e. of a whole
year's gross income of the Foundation ; the yearly
Tenths remaining payable, not being remitted by
the grant.
Queen Mary died on the 17th November, 1558.
The paper by Dr. Mallett, to which reference has
already been made, is found among the ' State
Papers, Domestic, Elizabeth 1559,' but is otherwise
undated. It will be most properly introduced here
in connection with a later Domestic Paper of Eliza
beth in 1560, without other special date (but about
September) and without address, though apparently
to the Lord Treasurer, endorsed ' S. Catharyn's.
Annexation of the M'shipp of S* Katherines to the
Lieutenant of y6 Tower, Sr Edw. Warner.' This is
as follows : —
' Right trustie and right welbeloved cosyn and
counsailor wee grete you well. Wheras or late dere
sister quene Mary by her letters patents dated the
xxth day of July, in the seconde yeare of her reigne
did graunte the Mrshipp of S* Katharynes by the
Towre of London and of all the landes and tene-
mentes therof unto Doctor Mallet for terme of his

63
lyfe at which tyme Sr Frauncis Fflemynge Knight A-D- 1547 1565,
had for terme of his lyfe a good patent in lawe of
the said Mrshipp by the graunte of or late dere
brother Kynge Edwarde the Sixt, wcl1 untill the
xxth day of July in the iiijth and vjth yeares of the
reigne of or said sister Quene Mary and Kinge
Philipp was not surrendered nor yet after the
same surrender any new patent procured ever out
by the said Dr Mallett of the same mastership
whearby his patent is supposed not avayleable in
the lawe and also the said Doctor Mallett by his
lettres hathe bene very willynge to make surrender
of y* in to or handes whearunto we have by you and
other or chief officers of or Courte of the Excheker
ben sondrye tymes made privye as also to the
unitinge of the said mastershipp to the lieutenant-
ship of or Towar of London for the ease of or owne
charges and the better avauncement of our lieute
nant theare wee presentlye consideringe that
Michis (i.e. the Michaelmas) rentes of the said
Mrshipp growe dewe now nerehande and beynge
very well mynded that the devise of the order of
the landes of the same shalbe in suche sorte as
wee alate gave or consent unto, have thought good
to will and require you to set Sr Edwarde Warner
lieutenante of or said Towar forthwth in the posses
sion of the same Mrshipp, and all the landes and
tenementes therof and further that you cause a
boke to be drawn e in pchement aswell of the gifte
of the said Mastershipp and the landes tenements
and hereditamentes therof as also of the steward-
shipp of or mannor of Estsmythfeld thearby to the

64
..d. 1547-1565. same Sr Edward Warner as bye you and the
residew of or said chief officers was devised and
by us thereunto consented that wee may signe the
same accordingly and theise shalbe yor sufficient
warraunt for the same.'
' The devise of the order of the landes7 of St.
Katharine's, to which reference is made in the
foregoing letter, is fully explained in a schedule or
balance-sheet, first appearing in the same State
Paper of 1559 which contains Dr. Mallett's memo
randum or narrative. In this balance-sheet, while
the totals of revenue and expenditure for St.
Katharine's are correct, some of the items are
omitted, and other clerical errors exist; and another
paper, dated February 1560, supplies these defi
ciencies by an accurate account. The nett revenue
is returned at £200. On the back of the copy of
1559 there is a statement of the expenses of the
Tower, which need only be given here in an
abridged form : —
' The yerly charges of ye Towre of London,
after thordre lately taken in the time of quene Mary
as folowithe : —
' First ye Constable woh is now called ye Lieu
tenant by y" yere cc11 (£200).'
The other charges are for one gentleman porter,
38 ' yemen warders,' and fuel, making with the
lieutenant's stipend a total of £884. 6s. 8d. The
document next sets forth,
' The yerly charges of ye towre of London after
thordre lately set forth by the Lorde Treasurer

65
Sr Richarde Sackvilde (sic) and Sr Walter Mylde- a.d.i54M565.
maye in ye seconde yere of or soveraigne ladie
quene Elizabethe.'
' Firste, the Lieutenant to have y" oulde ac
customed fee, wcl1 is by yere  ccli-'
The gentleman porter retains his place, as in
the former order, and 30 ' yemen-warders,' with
fuel, and ' one to kepe ye leades cleane,' complete
a total sum of £751. 13s. Ad.
' So the Quene dothe abate viii. persons and
shall save by ye yere cxxxiju xiij3 iiijd.'
' Make ye Lieutenant Master of St. Katherins
in maner and forme as is before written, and charge
him yerly with xij. persons, to keepe watche &
warde for ye saide ccu remaininge of ye revenues of
St. Katherins, and so shall ye noumbre be xlij.
persons to kepe the watche and the warde.'
A direction follows for uniting the Queen's
Manor of East Smithfield to the Tower, and the
paper is endorsed ' The Revenue of Saint Kateryns
and the order for the towre.'
Of the causes which led to the failure or with
drawal of this ' devise ' nothing is known, but the
figures show that the cost of the twelve additional
warders would exceed by £6 the £200 derived an
nually from St. Katharine's. The accounts of the old
Foundation as returned to Queen Elizabeth, in the
second year of her reign, at or about Michaelmas
1560, form an important addition to our knowledge
of the history, and are not given in the ordinary
copies of Ducarel. In the very rare edition found

66
a.d. 1547-1565. in Nichols' Bibliotheca, parts, if not the whole, of
the ' Tower-order ' papers are printed as a supple
mentary appendix, which includes this account.
The following is the corrected version of Feb
ruary, 1560-1. ' Saint Katherines.' (The figures
are in Roman numerals.)
' The clere yerly value of all the
landes and possessions by the year £352 9 1
'Wherof, ~~ '
First ij prestes to sarve the cure
besyde the pfitts of the Easter
boke whiche ys not ratyd in the
former some . . . 20 0 0
Item for iij sisters, evy of them at viiju
by the year . . . 24 0 0
Item, tenne pouar wemen evy of
them xlvs vja by the year . . 22 15 0
Item for petances yerly to the said
pouar wemen . . . . 2 0 0
Item to a clerke to sarve the church
yerly 
Item the baylys fe yerly .
Item the under-steward yerly .
Item the highe steward yerly .
Item the Receyver gen9all yerly
Item the tenthes to the quene yerly .
Item for Repacos yerly .
Item for Repacos and charge of the
Church yerly ....
Item to a lernyd counceler yerly

8

0

0

2

0

0

2

0

0

4

0

0

6

13

4

35

4

0

6

13

4

5

0

0

2

0

0

67
Som of theis allowances admonteth a.d. 1547-1565.
yerly to  140 5 8
So remayneth clere . . . . 212 3 5
Wherof is lefte to the
Mr to bear oute & supply
all wantes of the form9 charges . 12 3 5
The Remaine clere .... £200 (cc11)'
In this account it will be noticed that the
Tenths upon the revenues as a spiritual promotion
are still charged, and are assessed on the improved
valuation, including the sums allowed in the King's
Books for deductions ; the former Tenths having
been only £31. lis. 5 d. The maintenance of the
church still appears as a charge on the Hospital,
and the ' lernyd counceler ' represents the Com
missary of later days, as exercising the spiritual
jurisdiction. It will be observed that no mention is made of
any Brothers of the Hospital : although it is pos
sible that these three members of the original
capitular body may be represented by the two
priests and the clerk. The latter official receives
the stipend formerly assigned to each of the
Brothers and continued to the Sisters, and it does
not appear that the charge of a parish clerk had
previously fallen on the Hospital. The inhabitants
allege in 1565 that they were accustomed to pay
clerk's wages themselves. Hitherto, however, the
existence of male, as well as female members
of the Foundation had been recognised, and in
f2

68
a.d. 1547-1565. Mallett's grant of exemption from payment of
First-fruits mention is made among the charges
of the Hospital of the sustaining and relieving
' nonnullos pauperes et imbecillos viros et mulieres
infra hospitale praedictum commorantes.' The
daring fiction which Wilson subsequently in
vented had not yet occurred to the minds of less
ingenious financiers, and Queen Elizabeth, even in
annexing the deanery of a collegiate church to the
lieutenancy of the Tower, may have had some
intention to retain in form the personal divisions
of the community, to whom the Charter of Henry
VI. had been granted, as the Master, Brothers and
Sisters of St. Katharine's Hospital. But with the
visionary two priests and one clerk of this abortive
scheme all trace of a clerical or ecclesiastical
Brotherhood of St. Katharine's completely dis
appears for nearly a century and a quarter. No
evidence whatever has been produced to show that
the clerical brotherhood was revived earlier than
1681. It is not intended by this statement to
deny that from time to time a Brother of the Hos
pital, when there were Brothers again, may have
been in holy orders ; indeed it is very likely that
such an arrangement may have been found an
economical one, since the Hospital never escaped
some pecuniary liability for the parochial cure ;
but while the names and dates of ecclesiastical and
civil officers of the Precinct are preserved through
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the list of
Brothers is a blank, with the exception of four

69
names of clergymen, two of whom can be identified a.d. 1547-1565.
as ministers of the Precinct during the period of
the Commonwealth, as will be hereafter noticed.
The ' very willing ' spirit in which Dr. Mallett Dr. Mallett's
consented to surrender his patent of mastership to
Queen Elizabeth is shown in his letter of 1559, the
address of which has not been preserved. This
paper is too interesting for abridgment, and is sub
joined in full : —
State Papebs, Domestic. Eliz. Vol. vii. No. 77.
1559.
Matter concernyng the hospitali of Sancte Kateryns, nye
the Tower of London.
The full tenore of the first chareture, which noble
quene Elynore obteyned at her sone's hande (I trowe
kyng Edward the first) touchyng the first foundacione
of that hospital I can not report, by cause I have not
that chareture here. Thus moche I understande to
be true, that the said quene in her widdowed the yere
of or Lord mcclx & some odde did, w* the consent
of the bushope of London that then was, erect &
stablishe an hospitali of Sanct Kateryn, w'oute the
tower of London, and made one brother Thomas
Lychlayd first master and custos of that said hospitali,
w* certeyn brethren preistes ther to serve God after
such rewle & ordre as was then appoynted them,
enduyng them w* certeyn tenementes & landes in pure
and perpetuall almysse w* gret privilleges &c. And
this quene ordeyned that vi poore scollers shuld be
assistent unto those preistes in the helpes of dyvyne
service. The said quene also ordeyned certeyne sisters,
thre in noumbre & ten other poore bed wemen. And
hir grace reserved after hir deth, the jus of advocacone
& patronage of the said hospitali to the queues of
Englande that shuld succede hir. After this, quene

70
a.d. 1547-1566. Philip did ratefie and confirme all that quene Elynore
had doon & did encrease the heredymentes, how
moche, I can not tell. And she made sundrie statutes
for the said hospitali, amongst which, one was, that
whosoever shuld be master of the said hospitali, must
be a preist & make a certeyn profession as all the
bretheren & susters must do, expresly to live chaist
& to kepe an order of yr rewll ecclesiasticall & a
certeyn kynd of garment. Nor that any of the brethren
or susters shuld have any thyng propre to them sellves
w'oute licence of the master : to whome thei professe
obedience, w* many other meke devoute & as was
thought then religiouse ordinances. How these
statutes wl others were observed or by any quene's
aucthoritie chaunged I cannot lerne, for all monu-
mentes & bookes of statutes were w*drawen & made
away in the shorte tyme of Sr Thomas Seamer,
then Lord Admirall of England, beyng master ther
by the gifte of quene Kateryn Par. But how that
howse was usid and what ordre was kept thereyn for
fiftie yeres or mo before the Lord Adniyrall & after
hym Sr Francys Plemmyng Knyght both mear temporall
men, I have lernyd by such auncient neybores of the
town, and specyally of an old honest woman that had
bene sister of the hospitali above fourtie yeres, &
died but in Lent laste, as could well reporte it. Ther
was airway before the two temporall masters aboye
named, a preist master wl thre brethren preistes &
one or two syngyng preistes besides certeyn syngyng
men clarkes w* syngyng chyldren. And these kept
daily service song in the churche. And the master
kept his table and all the rest had ther commons
provided for them w'yn the hospitali, so that in those
days, and the rather because the house payed no tentes
as it now doth, and all vitells moch better chep
than now, ther was a commendable hospitalitie
kept & a good quere. The sisters & the poore

71
bed wemen had ther stipends and kept commons at *.d. 1547-1565.
home, but certeyn pitten dais thei dyned at the
master's table. Other common servitors the Mr had
as butler, cookes, porter, lawnder, barbar, & others.
But when the howse came to Mr Semars handes &
after to Mr Plemmynges all the plate of the house & of
the church w* all other household stuffe was w*drawn
and no hospitalitie of household kept, nor daly service
w' any queremen, onely the thre preistes brethren, who
maried & then took certeyn stipend and so yei and
yer wives lived as thei list in ther chambres & the
sisters & poore bed wen (sic) had ther stipends &
so the master tooke all the hole revenue besides to his
own selfe & the edifyyng of the house did wonder
fully decay &c. Now, may it like yr honor to under
stand, that I have declared the manner of my commyng
to be master there & of Mr Flemmynges depairture
frome it, at full to my lord tresorer & others the
quenes majesties commyshoners before whom I was
commaunded to answere in that behalfe. And therfore
I will not troble yor honor therew* at this tyme. But
how I founde the house, when I first entred to it,
bayr & voide of all stuff, sore in decay & unrepayred,
it is not unknown to manye. And I did set up house
at my first entryng, furnyshed a quere w' syngyng
men, bought furnature both for the churche & the
house & hath eversith kept house. Reparations hath
cost me moche and I have payd the tentes yerely for
the whole house w*oute any alowance for the brethren
and sustors portions or any other ordynary charges.
The yerely tentes is xxx11 and some deale more. And
where certeyn rereges were before my tyme left
unpayd & quene Mary was content to remytt them,
yet I have of layt payd them. So that I assure yor
honor the p'ce of vitells the repracions of the decayd
churche & houses & the stipend of servantes, as
well syngyng men preistes & other considered ther

72
a.d. 1547-1565. could no such gayn grow to me syns I was master
as is supposed. And indede of late I have had the
fewer both preistes & syngyng men bicause I could
not get mete persons for no money. And yet thow it
semeth to some that I have been of late a grett
getter by that mastership, I shal be able to declayr that
men ar sore deceyved in ther supposall notw*standyng
my late absence, which payrtly sekenesse forced me to,
& payrtly for that the people ther, ar grown to such
frowardnesse & evill will toward preisthoode that w*
my presence I can do litle good, & therfore have no
comforte to tarry ther, till I may understand certeynly
whether my beyng master shalbe alowed or no, by the
quene's majestie, for ells I shall have no obedient
parishoners or tennantes ther. But to make an ende,
may it like your honor to understande, that all dueties
payd to the brethren to the sisters & to the poore
bed wemen & other charges as the tentes & repra-
cions deducted, iff the rest bethought too moch for
the master and such syngyng men and other servantes
as of congruence he must have, and to kepe honest
hospitalitie in his house, by the quenes ordinances it
may be redressed and brought into better frame. And
as for my office of mastership, I submytt my selfe to
the quenes highnesse pleasure whose pleasure beyng
known to me shalbe my contencione. Or Lord preserve
hir excellent majestie, & graunte hir prosperously
long to reigne over us and send yor honor long to live
in welth & health. Pardon my rudeness I humbly
besech your rare eloquence & wisdome.
Tour humble orator Francys Mal(lett).
Indorsed. — The master Mr Mallet of Sanct
Katherynes declaraciones touchyng the state of that
hospitali w*out the tower of London.
The formal surrender of Dr. Mallett's Patent
was made on the 6th November 1561, and on the

73
following day, November 7th, a grant of the a.d.1647-1565.
mastership was made by the Queen to Thomas Dr. Thomas
Wilson, Doctor of Laws, her Secretary. This Master.'
patent is recited in a later grant, December 7th,
1563. It contains no dispensation from the obli
gation to holy orders. Queen Elizabeth perhaps
thought no such formality necessary in appointing
a layman to a deanery. At least, no such for
mality is observed, nor is any dispensing clause
inserted, in the grant by which, on the 4th
February 1579-80, she conferred the Deanery of
Durham on the same layman, then Sir Thomas
Wilson, Knight. But although Wilson's first
grant of the St. Katharine's Mastership contains
no dispensation from priest's orders, and although
even the ' non obstante ' formula does not appear
in the recital, it does contain the 'Ita tamen'
clause of reservation of rights and duties, which
has already been quoted, from Edward's grant to
Sir Francis Fleming. It need not be repeated
here; the only variation being that while in the
earlier deed St. Katharine's is described as a
' House or Hospital,' in the later it is styled a
' Hospital or Free Chapel.' But in the structure
of the two patents a remarkable contrast is ob
servable. Wilson's patent, both in its recital and
in its renewal, is exact and scholarly in its form,
and exhibits in its proper place the ' Ita tamen '
clause, which in Fleming's grant is wedged in
between the dispensing and the ' non obstante ' pro
visions in so unworkmanlike a fashion that on a

74
a..v. 1547-1565. first reading of the Latin it would appear as
though the ' acts, laws, and statutes ' barred by
the later words had been issued for the purpose of
prohibiting, instead of enforcing, the maintenance
of divine worship and alms. The insertion has
all the appearance of an afterthought or supple
mentary precaution ; and as it has no place in the
earlier clerical patent of 1461, the question as to
its object and meaning must inevitably arise. It
will not be seriously alleged by anyone that the
' Divinus cultus ' which was insisted upon by Edward
and Elizabeth was the private saying of masses
' for the souls aforesaid,' or any private worship
of a small ecclesiastical community whatever. In
deed, on Wilson's own showing, which we may
take as evidence of the facts existing in his own
time, whatever may be the worth of his histo
rical statement, the community consisted of a few
women only, with himself for their master. The
brotherhood of the old foundation or ' College '
was absolutely extinct. The only divine worship
for which at the time anyone would have thought
of providing was the maintenance of the services
in the Collegiate Church for the inhabitants or
parishioners of the Precinct, which the Hospital
had been bound to perform by its own members
and at the charge of its own revenues. The ' Ita
tamen ' clause is only intelligible as a security that
the inhabitants of the Precinct should not be ' de
frauded ' of their ancient rights in the divine
service and alms for which the Hospital was

75
responsible; and from this point again, as from a.d.1647-1665.
every other, the essentially local character of the
Foundation, and its local duties in relation to
the East End population, come prominently into
view. Wilson's appointment, in the opinion of Ducarel,
who is copied verbatim by Nichols, 'proved very
unfortunate for this Hospital.' The facts which
the historian brings forward in justification of this
opinion are not accurately stated, and it will be.
necessary to trace the true course of events from
original documents. But the great service which
Ducarel has rendered to his readers by printing
in full the memorial of the inhabitants to Sir
William Cecil may excuse a carelessness in chro
nology which is easily corrected. Wilson, of whom
a full account is given in Wood's ' Fasti ' and
quoted by Ducarel, was an active and energetic
servant of the Queen, and constantly occupied in
her affairs. There can be no doubt that the Queen
conferred the mastership of St. Katharine's upon
him as an office of profit by way of stipend for
his services; and whether he deserved or not
the charge of avarice which Ducarel — following,
perhaps, a tradition of the Precinct as well as the
contemporary memorial — brings against him, it
may be assumed that he would endeavour to make
the most profit he could by his office; and, in fact,
it is known that he did so endeavour, and with no
small success, partly by increasing his receipts
from the mastership and partly by diminishing its

76
a.d. 1547-1565. charges. The earlier years of his incumbency
were in consequence spent in a constant strife,
and besides the jealous critics of his proceedings
which the Precinct supplied, he provoked a more
powerful body of antagonists in the Corporation of
the City of London. His long lawsuit with the
Contest with Q^y ended in a compromise, the character of
which Ducarel has misunderstood, but which is
fully explained by the Guildhall Records.
The Great Charter of Henry VI. had included
the grant of license for a fair to be held annually
by the Hospital on Tower Hill, during twenty-one
days from and after the Feast of St. James (July
25th), and had secured valuable privileges and im
munities to all merchants and others trading at
the fair, which thus might become a great source
of profit to the Hospital. There is no evidence to
show whether this fair had ever been held. That
it had been long in abeyance, if the privilege had
ever been used, may be gathered from the Records.
But Wilson's influence would be of much wider
extent at home and abroad than that of the former
Clerical Masters, and he determined, not in his first
but in his second year of mastership, to hold the fair,
which, in one of the Minutes of the Corporation, is
expressively described as ' the ffaire that he pre
tended there yerely to holde and kepe a little be
fore the tyme of Bartilemewe ffaire:' a date which
sufficiently explains the hostility of the City.
Accordingly, in 1563, ' 5 Elizth July 15th,' the
contest began, and the Guildhall Minutes record

77
' A day given to the Master of St. Katherines a.d. 1547-1565.
touching his Fair granted by King Henry VI.'
On ' July 20 ' appears the ' Report of the Lord
Mayor touching the Fair. Dr. Wylson agreed that
his Learned Counsel and the City's Counsel should
see his Lies Patent whereby he claimeth the Fair.'
From this date the negotiation breaks off, to be
renewed in May of the following year. The infer
ence that Wilson's ' Letters Patent ' were found to
be void in law, and were refused recognition by the
City, is made certain by the fact that he resigned
them to the Queen, and received, as has been already
stated, a new patent dated December 7th, 1563.
This grant contains a dispensing clause of an
extremely definite kind : —
' Licet ipse idem Thomas Wilson laicus sit, ac
clericali ordine minime insignitus, sed uxoratus,
et conjugatus, ac etiam bigamus, ac alias benefi-
ciatus, et non sacerdos.'
This is followed by a very full ' non obstante '
clause expressly providing against the effect to the
contrary of any laws, statutes, &c. ' antehac per
aliquem vel aliquam regum vel reginarum prede-
cessorum nostrorum editis, &c. ; ' and thus armed
against any attack by the City on the ground that
the Foundation Charters of St. Katharine's re
quired the Master to be a priest, Wilson renewed
his preparations for holding the fair in July 1564.
The City took measures in opposition to him
throughout May and June; and on July 10th ' The
Recorder 'is 'to inform the Master of St. Kathe-

78
a.d. 1547-1565. rines that the Judges of the K. B. are to have the
examination of the matter touching the Fair.'
But St. James's Day was near at hand, and a brief
minute of July 20 reports a practical measure
adopted by the City admirable in its simple direct
ness : —
' Carmen and porters to be stayed from carrying
goods to the Fair.'
On the 24th 'The matter of the Fair' was
' referred to Catlyn, Chief Justice, the Chief Baron
and others ' ; and the proceedings continued from
time to time, till, on February 15th, 1564-5,
it appears that Wilson had made ' an offer for
the purchase of his liberties by the City,' and a
committee was appointed to confer with him on
the matter. The order for the purchase was made
April 3, 1565, but fresh difficulties arose, and
Wilson's cause required support from high autho
rity. On July 19th, 1566, ' The Earl of Leicester's
Lies in favour of Dr. Wilson, Master of St. Kathe
rines,' were ' read ' by the Court. The only com
ment is, ' Answer respited.' Three months later,
' Dr. Wilson agreed to stand to the judgement of
the court touching his recompense for surrendering
his pretended Right to the Fair of St. Katherines ' ;
and on April 22nd, 1567, it was ordered by the
Court ' that when the Master shall discharge all
Claim to the Fair he shall be permitted to enjoy
the £200 given to him.' Wilson held out for a
higher price, and on May 15th it was ordered that
' on bringing in Indentures and Bond touching the

79
relinquishing of Right to the Fair,' he was 'to a.d.i 547-1565.
have £100 more.' On May 17th 'the evidences '
were 'brought in,' and on May 27th 'ordered to
be delivered to the Town Clerk.'
A more full report of the proceedings of the
Court of Aldermen at the meetings in April and
May above mentioned, preserved in the ' Draper
MS. lib. v. fol. 95b,' throws additional and impor
tant light on the history of the Hospital. It has
already been stated, and will be more fully ex
plained in its place, that Wilson had denied the
existence of any but female members of the St.
Katharine's Foundation. This was in 1565. On
April 22nd, 1567, the Court of Aldermen are found
insisting on the joint action of ' the Master and the
Brethren and Sisters of the said Hospital,' who
' shall by good and sufficient writings in the lawe
under the Common Seale, utterly and clearly
discharge ' the ' pretended ' right to hold the Fair.
This condition is explicitly stated to have been
fulfilled on May 27th, when ' The Chamberlyn
brought in the Counterpayrt of the Indenture and
Obligacon made and sealed by the Mr. Brethren and
Sisters of the Hospital of St. Katherines nere unto
the Towre of London with there Coin on Seale,
and delivered unto him as theire dedes to the
Cityes use, according to the order here taken the
last Courte day for the same, which 2 writings and
also the Cityes Lie of Attorney made unto him the
said Chamberlyn for the receipt of the said Writings
to the Cityes use, and for the delivery of the said

80
a.d. 1547-1565. Indenture to the said Master, Brethren, and Sis
ters as the Cities dedes, were forthwith delivered
to the Town Clerk safely to be kept to the Cities
use.' The strict precautions taken by the City, as
evidenced by the Guildhall Records from which
the above extracts are quoted, in order to secure
the perfect and permanent validity of this sur
render by the Chapter of the Hospital, leave no
room to doubt that the City Chamberlain assured
himself by a personal interview that the whole
seven members of the Chapter were then actually
existing, and from this date it may therefore be
assumed that a Brotherhood in the Hospital was
restored. But the citizens even yet were not fully
Renewal of the satisfied. The Great Charter of Henry VI. had
' Great
Charter.' been surrendered by Wilson to the Queen on 1st
July, 1566, and a new charter had been granted
in its place, omitting the privilege of the Fair.
This had been sufficient at the time for the satis
faction of the City, but so long as the custody of the
surrendered charter was only with the Queen — the
implied suspicion in our own day seems too absurd
to have been possible at any time, but it is in
evidence three centuries ago nevertheless — there
was no security that it might not be produced again
as of effectual force. The City, therefore, took
measures for obtaining possession of the Great
Charter, and in 11 Elizabeth, January 23rd, 1568-9,
a record shows the 'surrender of the Patent of
Henry 6th made unto the Master, Brethren, and

Sisters of St. Katherines, touching a Faire lately a.d.1547-1565.
claymed by the Master of the saide house, and
delivered to the Chamberlyn for the Cities use,
safely to be kept,' — as it probably remains ' kept '
to this day.
Wilson's measures for diminishing the out- Exemption
° from Tenths,
goings of his mastership were as resolutely planned &&
and as persistently carried out as were those for
the increase of its income. It has been seen that
the Hospital was charged in the Valor of Henry
VIIL with payment of First-fruits and Tenths as
an Ecclesiastical body corporate, and that the
charge continued as one legally recognised in the
reign of Elizabeth. This tax on Church revenues
had been repealed under Philip and Mary, but was
reimposed by an Act passed immediately after
Elizabeth's accession. The reports of the Charity
and Royal Commissioners show that St. Katharine's
does not now pay Tenths to the Bounty Office,
and it did not enter into Ducarei's plan to give any
financial statement of the revenues and expendi
ture of the Hospital in the eighteenth century.
Whether he was ignorant of the transaction by
which exemption from the tax was secured, or
thought it prudent to suppress his knowledge of it,
does not appear. A long and somewhat intricate
paper in the Public Record Office affords the
fullest materials for supplying the omission, al
though its narrative is not very creditable to any
of the parties concerned. Wilson from the first
was determined that he would not pay the Queen's
G

82
a.d. 1547-1565. Tenths. Neither the City nor the Precinct could
possess any interest in the matter : the only
opposition possible was on the part of the Queen
herself, and Wilson stood high in her favour.
The suit which he instituted was thus practically
unopposed, and the report of it which is preserved
in 7 Eliz. No. 5, Roll 28, is sufficiently startling
in its details. Judgment in the suit was given in
Trinity Term, 7 Elizabeth, 1565, upon an applica
tion made to the Court of Exchequer (Thesaurario
et Baronibus Scaccarii), by Wilson in person, on
the 7th of July in that term.
This application was made by Wilson on his
own behalf, and on that of Edmund Grindal,
Bishop of London, for discharge from a claim of
the Exchequer for seven years' arrears of Tenths,
from the first to the seventh Christmas in the
reign of Elizabeth inclusive; and from all further
claim to such payments by the Master of St.
Katharine's Hospital. Four of these seven years
represented the period of Wilson's Mastership; in
respect of the three years preceding, the Bishop
was charged with the arrears at an annual
rate of £31. lis. 6d., as in the Valor, but with the
addition of a penny for symmetry. Wilson's
obligation was accordingly £126. 6s., and the
Bishop's £94. 14s. Gd. Another and larger sum
with which, as appears in the pleadings, the Bishop
was charged, and which is differently given in two
parts of the record — first as £313. 9s. Q^d., and
subsequently (twice) as £413. 9s. 9^d. — has been

83
supposed by the writer of an article in Fraser's a.d.1547-1565.
Magazine (January 1867) to relate to a charge for
First-fruits in addition to the Tenths. This is a
mistake: the sum really represents the total claim
of the Exchequer upon the Bishop for various
arrears, in which was computed the sum already
named, £94. 14s. 6d., as arrears from St. Katha
rine's; and it requires no further notice.
The record opens with the recital of a certifi
cate to the Court of Exchequer, given by Bishop
Edmund Grindal on May 20th, 1562, in which he
states that he had been unable, although using all
his powers of monition and even excommunication,
to collect the Tenths from certain ' clerks and
ministers' named, with the names of their benefices,
in a Schedule annexed ; ' in which Schedule so
annexed was contained : Hospital of St. Katharine,
near the Tower of London. The Master, Thomas
Wilson, Incumbent there, having been legally
admonished to pay the Tenth thence, expressly
refuses on the ground that he is exonerated, as he
asserts, by a Statute of the Realm of England.
£31. lis. Qd:
The account — ' compotum '—of the said Ed
mund Grindal, Bishop of London, to the seventh
year of Elizabeth inclusive, is next put in. It
exhibits the statement of arrears due from Thomas
Wilson, £126. 6s., and also the gross arrears
charged upon himself. The report then states
that Wilson, appearing in person on the 7th July,
requested hearing of the premisses, which were
82

84
a.d. 1547-1565. read accordingly. Upon which (quibus lectis et
per ipsum auditis et intellectis) Wilson proceeds
to plead that both the amount of £126. 6s. charged
upon himself for the four years last past, and also
the annual amount of £31. lis. Qd. for the three
years preceding them, charged upon the Bishop of
London (and as regards the first of such years on
the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, apparently
during vacancy of the See), were unjustly and
illegally so charged.
In support of this defence, Wilson produces the
exlsraordinary allegations to which reference has
already been made. After reciting the original
enactment, the repeal, and the reimposition of the
First-fruits and Tenths taxation, he adduces from
the reimposing Act of 1 Elizabeth a provision
that the Act shall not apply ' ad onerandum aliquod
hospitale fundatum et usum ac possessiones ihde in
relevamen pauperum expositas.' Under this clause
he alleges that the Hospital of St. Katharine is
exempt as one founded and used for the relief of
the poor ; proof of which allegation he advances as
follows: —
He says that at the time of the passing of the
Act of 1 Elizabeth the said Hospital, then and long
before (et diu antea) was and had been founded
and used, and the possessions thence applied ' ad
relevamen pauperum et debilium mulierum in
eodem hospitale.' The plain construction of this
sentence refers the description of ' pauperum ' to
women only. The remainder of the sentence is

85
given in the Latin of the copy before the writer, a.d.1547-1565,
in case any argument may be raised upon the
masculine ' eorundem ' which it exhibits : ' ac
idem hospitale fundatum et usum existit ac pos-
sessiones inde in relevamen eorundem pauperum
expositse existunt.' ' And the Master aforesaid says
further, that the aforesaid Hospital of St. Katha
rine in the aforesaid certificate specified, as above
recited, and the house which in the aforesaid
account (compoto) is called and named Collegium
Sanctos Katherinoe are one and the same Hospital of
St. Katharine, and not other or diverse. And that
any College of St. Katharine does not exist.' (Quod-
que aliquod Collegium Sanctas Katherinae non
existit.) In support of this definite and remarkable
assertion, Wilson cites a further certificate to the
Treasurer and Barons of the Exchequer by Bishop
Edmund Grindal, bearing date February 4 in
6 Elizabeth, i.e. 1563-4. (Upon this document it
is necessary to remark that an earlier certificate of
Grindal's, preserved in the Bishop of London's
Registry, distinctly shows the ecclesiastical cha
racter of the foundation as known to himself.)
The certificate to the Exchequer states that ' The
Hospital of St. Katharine, situated near the Tower
of London, charged by the name of the College of
St. Katharine, near the Tower aforesaid, with pay
ment of Tenths, &c, was and is, ex inspectione et
certa scientia nostra, of the foundation of one
(cujusdam) Lady Elinore of renowned memory,

86
a.d. 1547-1565. some time Queen of England, wife of Henry, of
that name after the conquest of England the Third,
and by the name of a hospital for the sustentation
of poor and disabled women (pauperum et debilium
mulierum), erected and established, and so known
and reputed.' The following sentence must be
given as it stands in the Latin certificate :
' Quodque in sua hujusmodi originali essentia in
praesenti existit ac continuatur, bonaque redditus
et proficua ejusdem hospitalis ad eosdem usus juxta
ejusdem originalem fundationem et erectionem
predictam disponuntur et disponi debent.' This
astonishing statement given under the episcopal
seal needs no comment. Wilson declared that he
was ready to verify the premisses if required by the
Court : and upon them he besought judgment in
his own and the Bishop's favour, with the acquies
cence of Gilbert Gerrard, Attorney-General, who
expressed himself as satisfied on behalf of the
Queen, ' et ulterius prosequi non vult.' Judgment
was given as Wilson prayed, and from that time
St. Katharine's Hospital has been discharged from
payment of Tenths on the grounds alleged. It was,
so far as this decision goes, declared to be com
pletely secularised, and also, as it would seem, to
have been secular, in the modern, not in the eccle
siastical sense of the term, from its first foundation.
Whatever may have been the value of Wilson's and
the Bishop's testimony as to history, their testimony
to existing facts must be accepted. The Royal
Hospital and Free Chapel, with its peculiar and

87
exempt jurisdiction ecclesiastical and civil, was then a.d. 1547-1565.
' hospitale pauperum et debilium mulierum,' how
ever those words may be translated. Its pay
ments at that time were, as far as is known, to the
Sisters and beadswomen only, except so far as the
rights of the parishioners of the Precinct may have
compelled Wilson to provide for the maintenance
of divine service in the Collegiate Church. There
was no College. Even if the ecclesiastical circum
stances of the time had been consistent with the
maintenance of a fraternity of priests or clergy,
the certificate of Grindal, unaccountable as it is
on other grounds, would have been absolutely im
possible in the face of any such body ; and the
inference seems inevitable that at the date of this
certificate, February 4, 1563-4, and till the action
of the City Chamberlain in 1567, no Brothers of
St. Katharine's Hospital, clerical or lay, existed
at all. After 1567 a brotherhood was restored,
and benefactions by will prove its existence in
1596. But the foundation was completely secu
larised ; and from the death of Katharine Parr to
that of Queen Elizabeth the entire absence from
the Public Records of any patent of nomination of
a Brother or Sister shows that no such appoint
ments were made by the Crown. That the Crown
had nominated, and that patents in such cases had
been enrolled in earlier times when there was no
Queen Consort or Dowager, the fortunate preser
vation of Henry VIII.'s nomination, in 1509, of
Margery Pole as a Sister, in place of Elena Litley,
deceased, sufficiently attests.

88
a.d. 1547-1565. The valuation in the King's Books, unchanged
in amount during 320 years, may seem trifling at
the present day: but even in its nominal cash
value the sum saved to the revenues of St. Ka
tharine's by its exemption from Tenths has been
upwards of £10,000, and if First-fruits be included,
upwards of £16,000. This saving, since the time
of Queen Anne, has been effected at the expense
of the Bounty Office Fund for augmenting the
incomes of the poorer clergy : while the ground on
which the exemption was allowed is shown to have
been that the Hospital and all its possessions
existed solely for the relief of the poor. The poor
so to be benefited by the Hospital were obviously
those of its own immediate neighbourhood ; and
the exemption from payments to the Bounty Office
which the Hospital still enjoys, discreditable as
were the means used to secure it, is at least a
standing testimony in favour of the rights of the
East London poor to a participation in its corpo
rate revenues.

89

IV.
Three Royal grants of the advowson or right of a.d.1565-1825.
patronage in St. Katharine's Hospital are preserved
in the Public Record Office ; but, so far as the
writer is aware, their existence has been hitherto
unknown, and has only now been discovered through
the help of Mr. Brewer's valuable Calendar of the
State Papers. Copies of these grants have been
obtained since the preceding pages were in type,
and their contents form a material addition to our
knowledge of the past history of the Hospital.
The first and second of these grants were made The patronage
by Henry VIIL in favour of his Queens, Katharine Katharine's.
Howard and Katharine Parr, in each case being
patents for life. The authority under which Katha
rine Parr, as Queen-Dowager, appointed Sir Thomas
Seymour to the Mastership, is thus placed beyond
dispute. With a very slight variation in terms the
second grant is similar to the first ; the King re
citing in both that by virtue of an Act of the Par
liament held in the 31st and 32nd years of his
reign (April 28th, 1539, to July 24th, 1540) he
and his successors were empowered to give by
letters patent to the Queen-Consort, for her life, of
free will, lands, manors, privileges, &c, ' in plenam
recompensationem totius juncturae et dotis suaa quae
ipsa aliquo modo vendicare possit ratione maritagii

90
a.d. 1565-1825. sui cum Regia person^.' It has already been seen
that the patronage of St. Katharine's has been re
garded as a portion of the Queen-Consort's dower,
and as such would fall under the class of posses
sions above described.
The King accordingly grants to Katharine
Howard, whom he had married August 8th, 1540,
in full and entire satisfaction, recompense and ' con-
tentation ' of all her dower (dotis), dowry (doariae),
jointure or donation (sic) in respect of her marriage,
all and every the honours, castles, &c, underwritten,
and among them, ' Necnon advocationes jure praa-
nominato nominationem et praesentationem domus
sive Hospitalis Sanctse Katerinaa juxta Turrim
London ; all which were, inter alia, part of the
possessions lately appointed and assigned to the
Lady Jane, lately Queen of England, for the term of
her life, in full satisfaction of dower,' &c. (as before).
It is not said that Jane Seymour, who died Octo
ber 12th, 1538, before the passing of the recited
Act, held these possessions under letters patent,
nor have any such letters patent been found. Pro
bably, therefore, she held the advowson of St. Katha
rine's as part of her dowry by ancient right. In the
grant to Katharine Parr, the word ' advocationem ' is
in the singular, and the grant is general in its terms ;
thus materially differing from the grant next to be
mentioned in 14 James I.
The object of the last-named grant (March 21st,
1616-7), as set forth in its preamble, was the re
medying and removing various defects, omissions,

91
ambiguities, and obscurities contained and existing a.d.1565-1825.
in certain letters patent previously issued to and in
favour of Anne, the Queen- Consort, by King James I.
Among the possessions thus re-granted and con
firmed to the Queen in express detail is ' the dona
tion, presentation, and free disposition of the
Master of the Hospital of St. Katharine, near the
Tower of London, and of all the Brothers and
Sisters of the same Hospital, and of the place, func
tion, and office of the said Master, and of all the
Brothers and Sisters of the same Hospital, from
time to time, and as often soever as the said places,
functions, and offices of the Master, Brothers, and
Sisters, or any one of them, shall be or shall have
become vacant, during the life of the said Lady the
Queen, with all and every their rights, parts, and
appurtenances ; ' to hold, &c. ' ad proprium opus et
usum ' of the said Queen and her assigns for the term
of her natural life.
At the date of this grant Sir Julius Caesar was
Master of St. Katharine's Hospital, under a patent
of Elizabeth, renewed by Anne, the Queen- Consort,
with confirmation by James I. in 1603. The ex
press declaration of the right of the Queen to appoint
the Brothers and Sisters, as well as the Master of
the Hospital, read in connection with its preamble as
to omissions and ambiguities in earlier grants, must
be remembered when the question of the practical
exercise of this patronage at the time arises for
consideration. If, after this grant of 1616-7, Sir
Julius Caesar should have continued to nominate

92
a.d. 1565 1825. and appoint Brothers and Sisters on the Founda
tion, as he may reasonably be supposed to have
done previously, the validity of such acts would be
open to question, and may not have been recognised
by a succeeding patroness.
No similar grant by Charles I. to his Queen,
Henrietta Maria, has as yet been discovered. The
lists of Brothers and Sisters given by Ducarel will be
the subject of later notice, but it has been necessary
to refer to the Royal grants above mentioned before
carrying on the history of the Hospital during the
later years of Elizabeth's reign.
Sir Thomas Wilson died in 1581. He had
succeeded in establishing the system which con
verted the Mastership of St. Katharine's into a
virtually secular office of profit under the Crown.
His lay successors, like himself, for a long period
were careful to augment their own emoluments,
and to escape, as far as was possible, any increased
charges for the maintenance of the Hospital. Three
Brothers and three Sisters were nominally associated
with them on the Foundation, but the payments to
these members of the Chapter were not allowed to
exceed the £8 for each which had been the scale
of 1545. Their relation in rank and position to
the Beadswomen may be estimated by legacies
bequeathed in 1636 by Sir Julius Caasar, which
amounted to £3 each for the Brothers and Sisters,
and to £2 each for the Beadswomen. Their digni
ties and capitular rights were only restored, after a
long struggle, in 1698, and their emoluments have

93
never, even to the present time, properly repre- a.d.1565-1825.
sented their position. The Brothers have not now
even the lowest scale of stipend annexed to an
ordinary canonry, and the Sisters in the re-arrange
ments both of 1698 and 1829 have been deprived
of their original and ancient right of equality with
the Brothers, their income being assessed on a con
siderably lower scale ; a distinction which is wholly
incompatible with the original charters and history
of St. Katharine's, and which, it may be hoped,
will disappear under the Ordinance now about to
be issued. Sir Julius Caesar obtained the Mastership by sir Julius
grant from Queen Elizabeth in 1596, and his
incumbency lasted for forty years, so that no new
appointment of a Master was made till the reign
of Charles I. A grant of confirmation was, as
already mentioned, made by James I. in Caasar's
favour, in which the King asserts the right of his
Queen-Consort to the patronage of the Hospital.
It became, however, necessary for some reason to
place the Queen's right on a more secure basis
in 1616-7. Sir Robert Ayton, Knight, whom Ducarel
inserts in his list of Masters as ' Acton,' succeeded
Sir Julius Caesar in 1636, and ' dyed about the
20th of Februarie 1637,' i.e. 1637-8. The date of
Ayton's death is not given by Ducarel, whose next
succeeding notice states, without reference to any
record, that ' Dr. Coxe was put in by the Parlia
ment in 1653.' But, in fact, in 1638 the Master-

94
..d. 1565-1825. ships of the Mountagues began, and continued, but
for the parenthetical appointment by the Parlia
ment, till the death of the Hon. George Mountague
— whose monument is preserved in the present
Chapel of St. Katharine's —in July 1681. Ducarel
gives the names of three brothers as successively
Masters — Walter, Henry (whose name is not found
in Burke's genealogy), and George; but Nichols
omits the first of these, whose nominal appointment
was made, according to Ducarel, by the Queen-
Dowager, Henrietta Maria, in 1660. Nichols
states that Henry's ' patent as Master bears date
16th October 1659,' a date which is as perplexing
as it is precise, because it is certain from a ' State
Paper Domestic,' dated July 22nd, 1640, that
Henry Mountague was then Master by the Queen's
grant, and that he had succeeded Sir Robert Ayton
in 1638. The dates of the beginning and end of
the Mountague Masterships coincide respectively
with the beginning of the List of Sisters given by
Ducarel in 1638, and with that of his List of
Clerical Brothers — as will be observed at once on
examination — in 1681.
The movement of Ecclesiastical revival for St.
Katharine's may be said to date from the early
years of the reign of Charles I. In the preceding
reign some repairs in the Church are noticed, and
a western gallery was added; but a more costly
work, to which Ducarel assigns higher praise than
modern architects would accord to it, was under
taken in 1629 by Sir Julius Caesar, who is said to

95
have covered the whole outside of the Church with a.d.1565 1825.
rough-cast at an expense of £250, and who also
gave the elaborately carved pulpit which is still
preserved. This pulpit was regarded with much
admiration by Ducarel, who caused all its carvings
to be engraved for his work, and who has thus
enabled his readers to test for themselves the
value of his statement that views of the ancient
Hospital are represented on its six sides. The
statement is repeated with unquestioning simpli
city on the plates themselves, and indicates what
was the level of architectural knowledge, even
among educated men, a century ago.
Sir Julius Caasar's rough-cast can be recognised
in a small engraving of the Church by Hollar, in
1660, where the walls exhibit an uniform surface
of cement. But the restoration of the Church as
designed and carried out by the Mountagues has
not received from Ducarel the attention which it
deserves. In his text he makes no mention of it
whatever, and in his notice of George Mountague
in the list of Masters, he only writes that ' he
much repaired this Church, as appears by his
epitaph.' But the epitaph, even after making the
necessary allowance for the style of such com
positions, describes a work of much greater magni
tude: — ' Hoc enim templum, vetustate et squalore
obrutum, immenso paane sumptu, ab interitu
ruinisque vindicavit. Majora tamen meditantem,
et tarn pio opere occupatum, ad praamium benefac-
torum Deus evocavit.' This description of the

96
a.d. 1565-1825. condition in which George Mountague found the
Church must be read in comparison with the paper,
hitherto unpublished, to which reference has al
ready been made. Its date is July 22nd, 1640,
and it is a 'brief in a suit for Ecclesiastical
dilapidations brought by Henry Mountague, Esq.,
Master of St. Katharine's, against the executor of
Sir Robert Ayton, his predecessor.
As a record of the suit this paper is incomplete,
but its contents are sufficient for the present pur
pose, and are of great value. All the articles
alleged in the brief, with one formal exception,
are admitted by the defendant, the phrase ' Fatetur
Aytoh ad 1, 2, &c.' being appended to each.
They directly contradict the allegations of Wilson
and the certificate of Bishop Grindal in 1565, and
re-assert the Ecclesiastical character of St. Katha
rine's Hospital, reciting as follows: —
' 1. That the Hospitali or free Chappell of St.
Catherine's, neere the Towre, was and is a benefice
Ecclesiastical!. ' 2. That for the time articulate the office and
place of Master, Warden, and Governour of the
said Hospitali or free Chappell was conferred on
Henrie Mountague, Esq" by the Queenes Matie' by
her Letters Pattent, and hee was admitted there
unto and for all the time articulate in quiett
possession thereof.'
Article 3 alleges that Sir Robert Ayton had
been Master till his death, which is dated February
20th, 1637-8.

97
'4. That there are within the scyte or circuite a.d. 1547-1 825.
and as belonging to the said Hospitali, a Church,
with quire or Chancell, and a house belonging to
the Master, Warden, or Governour of the said
hospitali, three houses belonging to three brothers,
and three other houses belonging to three widowes,
sisters of the said Hospitali, and thirteene (sic)
other houses belonging to thirteene (sic) poore
woemen comonly called beadeswomen.'
Article 5 alleges Ayton's liability as Master for
' reparation, mending, and rebuilding ' in respect
of the premises ' for his time.'
' 6. That the said Church of St. Catherine's, and
the Master's house, brothers' houses, sisters' houses,
and beadeswomen's houses afforesaid, with their
apptenances whelest the said Sr- Robert Ayton
was Master of the said hospitali, and at the time
of his death, were much decayed and wanted
reparations in the pticulers followeinge, according
to an estimate thereof taken by skillfull workmen
the 24 of October 1638.'
' The "particulars" follow in exact detail, and
the wording of the various estimates and certifi
cates of the ' skillful workmen ' is curiously
elaborate. One item, for glazier's work, seems to
have been disputed by the executor, and a re
valuation on ' viewe in Aprill 1639 ' reduced it
by £12. The total estimates for dilapidations so
corrected amount to £545. 15s. Od.
' 7. That the value of the rightes and emolu-
H

98
A.D.1547-1825. ments of the Hospitali articulate doth amount to
250" yeerelie one yeere with another.'
Article 8 alleges the making of Sir Robert
Ayton's will, and the appointment of John Ayton,
Esq., as executor, together with the liability of the
executor. To this article the usual ' Fatetur '
is not appended, and in the copy from which these
extracts are taken it is immediately followed by
the words 'Fatetur Ayton ad 9, 10, et 11, f. 84,'
which three articles do not appear in the ' briefe.'
Ayton's tenure of the Mastership had been less
than two years, and the amount of dilapidations
charged is considerably greater than his total
receipts as alleged during the period. The result of
the suit is unknown, and the history of the time
gives sufficient reason for supposing that the work
of reparation was suspended till George Moun
tague undertook it in the reign of Charles II.
thtei7therS in Tlie "^dental notice in Article 4 as above
century. quoted, relating to the ' thirteen beadeswomen ' and
their houses, besides the ' three widowes, sisters,'
is of evident importance to the history of the
Foundation. Ducarei's list of the Sisters begins
with the dates and names following : —
1638. June 13. Mrs. Katherine Rawbone.
1639  Mrs. Sarah Harrison.
1639. July 9. Mrs. Elizabeth Bradshaw.
Three Sisters were therefore appointed during
the first year of Henry Mountague's Mastership,
and their names stand at the head .of the list of

99
Ladies of the Chapter holding their offices by a.d. 1547-1825.
royal letters patent. The number of Beads
women had never been more than the original
ten. The inference is almost conclusive that the
Queen, Henrietta Maria, had refused to recognise
as Sisters the three nominal incumbents of those
Chapter offices, who had probably been appointed
by Sir Julius Caesar as Master, subsequently to
the letters patent of 1616-7, and that she had
permitted them to remain on the Foundation as
Beadswomen. Of the Brothers of the Hospital the only The Brothers
t n • , ^ , r. ¦ ... in the 17th
record which Ducarel professes to give previously century.
to 1681 contains four names, as under, an apparent
misprint being corrected from his own text as well
as from other sources : —
1628. Walter Gray, Clerk.
1640. Henry Sulyard, Clerk.
1646. March 26. Richard Kentish, Clerk.
1658. November 3. Samuel Slater, Clerk.
Of the first and second of these names the
writer has found no other trace, but they may pro
bably be identified by the registers of the Church
in the possession of the Chapter.
Richard Kentish is shown by Ducarel to have
been the preacher of St. Katharine's, 'according
to our custome chosen by the people,' as appears
from the presentment in Cromwell's Survey, 1650.
He had then ' lyved with us allmost eleaven yeares,'
i.e. from 1639, ' and receives annually towards
his maintenaunce from the said hospitali twenty
h2

100
.,d. 1547-1825. pounds, and from the inhabitants about fortye-five
pounds, although they are generally very poore,
together with a convenient dwelling-house which
was granted by the hospitali to the inhabitants to
the use of their preacher for the tearme of forty
yeares, there being but one year expired, they
paying quarterly e to the hospitali one shilling.'
The statement that the preacher in the ' Collegiate
Church belonging to the hospitali there scituated '
was ' chosen by the people according to our custome '
is significant. The lease granted by the Hospital
at a nominal rent began only in 1649, when Henry
Mountague had probably been dispossessed of his
Mastership. Samuel Slater is in his turn shown by Ducarel,
quoting from the Lambeth Records, to have been
nominated to the Commissioners for approbation
of public preachers for appointment to ' Kathe-
rine's, neare the Tower of London.' This appoint
ment is dated June 18th, 1658, and on June 22nd,
by approbation of ' His Highnesse and Councell,'
an annual stipend of forty pounds was ordered to
be paid to him by the Commissioners. In the
latter document he is carelessly described as ' Mr.
Daniell Slaughter, Minister of St. Katherine's,
Tower.' From these dates it appears probable
that Ducarei's insertion of Slater's name as a
Brother in 1628 must be incorrect, while both in
his case and in that of Richard Kentish the £8
annual payment to a Brother might so far reduce
the £20 granted by the Hospital to the preacher.

101
George Mountague died July 19, 1681. He a.d. 1547-1 825.
was succeeded on August 27 by William, Lord
Brounker, the Queen's grant being confirmed by
the King (Charles II.) on September 7, and on
the 5th of January in the same year (i.e. 1681-2)
the names of Edward Lake, D.D., and Bartholomew
Wormell, clerk, appear on Ducarei's List of Bro
thers, preceded only by the four names already
mentioned. There is ground for the presumption that at
this period in the history of St. Katharine's atten
tion would be drawn to the original lines of the
Foundation, and its restoration on that basis be
comes probable in consequence. Mr. Skirrow's
report shows that George Mountague's right to the
Mastership had been disputed by Sir Robert
Atkyns, and Ducarel states that a similar action
had been brought by the same claimant against
Lord Brounker. Atkyns claimed under a grant of
Henrietta Maria, the Queen-Dowager, which may
probably have been made on the death of Henry
Mountague in or about 1660 ; but he failed in both
lawsuits, and the decision of this question appears
to have been contemporaneous with the complete
restoration of the ancient Clerical Brotherhood.
Two Brothers only, however, were appointed in
1681, and the next name on the list is that of
Robert Garrett, clerk, 1687. The fact is consistent
with the possible existence in 1681 of a third
Brother in the person of the Minister or Curate
of the Precinct. It is not apparent why the list

102
a.d. 1547-1825. of the Brothers does not begin in 1638-9 coin-
cidently with that of the Sisters; but the dispensing
power, which, in the time of the Stuart kings, was
held to be vested in the sovereign, and which was
exercised in every instance of an appointment to
the Mastership, may also have been used in the
case of the Brothers of St. Katharine's, although
Ducarel may have thought it prudent to suppress
the particulars, the dignity of the Clerical Brother
hood having obtained great consideration before
his time.No trace of any attempt to hold an Ecclesiastical
Visitation of the Hospital is discoverable between
the reign of Edward VI. and that of William III.
The jurisdiction was exempt, as has been seen;
but in March 1691-2 the Visitor of Exempt Juris
dictions in and near London, Dr. Payne, proceeded
to hold a Visitation at St. Katharine's. His cita
tion received no attention from Dr. Lake and Mr.
Wormhill, who were summoned as two of the
' Brothers, Curates, or Ministers of the said Church
or Chapel,' and he accordingly suspended them for
contumacy. The sentence received no more atten
tion than the summons, and Dr. Payne shortly
afterwards resigned his office, ' his commission
being deemed insufficient.' As Mr. Garrett's name
does not appear in these proceedings, it is probable
that he was either too submissive or too unim
portant to be contumacious. But upon his name a
question arises as to Ducarei's accuracy in giving
the date of his appointment as Brother, September

103
21, 1687. In the choir of the Church a gravestone a.d.1547-1825.
had recorded the burial on August 10, 1663, of
' Henry, the son of Robert Garrett, Brother of this
Hospital;' and another monument records, through
the care of John Gibbon, of the College of Heralds
(he was Bluemantle Pursuivant), the beauty and
goodness of Margaret Garret — ' quam tanquam
sui ipsius dilexit filiam' — 'daughter of Robert
Garret, Senior Brother of this College, and Ann
Mudd, his wife, who died on 25th November,
1683.' As Dr. Lake and Mr. Wormhill had been
appointed Brothers in 1681, while Robert Garrett
was described as ' Brother of this Hospital ' in
1663, and as ' Senior Brother of this College in
1683, his appointment in 1687 seems to be more
than doubtful. He is not in either of his children's
epitaphs described as a clerk in holy orders, and
the possibility of Ducarei's having confused the
names of two Robert Garretts, perhaps father and
son, is at least suggested. The point is worth
investigation in its bearing upon the restoration of
the Clerical Brotherhood of the Chapter.
Lord Brounker died in 1 684. His successor was The visitation
Sir James Butler, who held the Mastership till 1698,
when his misconduct resulted in the great Visita
tion by Lord Somers, then Lord Chancellor, and to
the issuing of the Rules and Orders under which,
from that date till the passing of the Docks Bill in
1825, the Hospital was governed on its ancient site.
Sir James Butler was removed from the Master
ship, and from this point it is not necessary to

104
a.d.1547-1825. continue the history of the Foundation in detail,
the Reports of the Charity Commissioners in 1837
and 1866 supplying ample information on the sub
ject. Lord Somers' Rules and Orders are found
only in the complete and scarce edition of Ducarei's
History, but are printed in full in Mr. Skirrow's
Report. They re-established the Foundation, except
for the continuance of the Lay Mastership under
the protection of dispensing clauses, on its original
basis : the three Brothers, Priests, and the three
Sisters were restored to their capitular rights, and
all would have been found ready for the revival, in
our own time, of the working of the ancient Eccle
siastical community in and around its Collegiate
Church in the East of London, but for the sup
posed commercial necessity of constructing the
St. Katharine Docks in 1825. Yet, though re
moved from its ancient site, the Foundation still
remains, the rights of its Royal Patronesses re
covered, its country estates untouched and more
valuable than ever, and its Chapter formally per
fect so soon as its clerical head shall have received his
letters patent. Its estates are still to a large extent
controlled by the operation of the once almost
universal system of leases renewable for years or
on lives by payment of fines. Several of these
leases are still unexpired. The income of the
Hospital is thus much beneath the true value of
its rental ; and as Mr. Skirrow's Report gives full
particulars of the present and prospective returns
from the estates and other investments of the

105
Hospital property, it is sufficient here to state the A.D.1547-1825.
total amounts in his ' Summary of the present and
supposed future Gross Annual Income of the
Foundation: —
Present Income (1866) . £7,097. 4s. 10|d. Presentand
Future „ estimated . £14,832. 15s. lO^d. future income-
This estimate for the future is made on the
assumption that the leases will be allowed to run
out in their ordinary course. If the less prudent
and economical plan should be adopted of dis
counting the reversions for the sake of an imme
diate increase of revenue, a considerable loss will
be the result as regards the income of the future.
In presenting this summary Mr. Skirrow has
repeated an error which appears throughout his
Report, and which forms the only blemish worth
notice in that elaborate and valuable State-Paper.
He speaks of the 'Income of the Charity.' It is
quite consistent and natural that the later Report
of the Royal Commissioners should adopt this
misnomer, because the absence of any attempt to
ascertain the real facts of the constitution and
history of the Foundation is conspicuous through
out that unfortunate performance, which hardly
deserves to be recalled from the oblivion to which
the censure of the House of Lords consigned it in
1871. But Mr. Skirrow is an accurate and most
painstaking inquirer, and the excuse in his case
is so obvious that it scarcely needs to be men
tioned. His official inspections are concerned with
' Charities ;' and the existence of charitable trusts

106
a.d. 1647-1825. charged generally on the revenues of this Founda
tion led to the undertaking of the inquiry in 1865
by the Charity Commissioners, acting, as it was
understood at the time, on the motion of the
Ecclesiastical Commissioners, upon whom, by the
Act of 3 & 4 Victoria already quoted, the inquiry
strictly devolved. From Mr. Skirrow's point of
view, therefore, the Foundation appeared as a
' Charity,' which ' in its original essence ' and true
character it is not, and never has been.
Conclusion. St. Katharine's Hospital is an Ecclesiastical
Corporation, returned as a ' Promotion Spiritual '
in the reign of Henry VIIL, and so acknowledged
by law in the reign of Charles I. It takes its
place as a Collegiate Church with Westminster
and Windsor. The Clerical Head of its Chapter,
the Master of the Hospital, will be entitled, unless
Her Majesty shall see fit otherwise to direct, to
the style of Very Reverend and the rank of Dean.
The Brothers have the status and dignity of
Canons Residentiary, and through the Sisters of
the Chapter the parallel dignity of Canonesses is
preserved, under another style, to the English
Church of our day. The Collegiate Chapter holds
its entire revenues subject to certain eleemosynary
trusts embodied in its original constitution, the
ecclesiastical and the charitable charges belonging
alike to all the estates instead of being assigned
separately to different portions of them. The
whole regulation of the manner in which, within
the limits as defined by law of the original Founda-

107
tion, the Hospital shall be administered, rests A.D.1547-1825.
absolutely with the Royal Patroness for the time
being, and at present therefore with the Queen.
Precedent has shown that the Patroness has been
accustomed to regulate the administration of the
Hospital through the action of the Lord Chan
cellor, the patronage of the Mastership and other
Chapter offices being now, as originally, vested
personally in herself. All these principles of the
constitution of St. Katharine's must be kept in
view in any scheme which it may be proposed to
submit, or in any suggestions which may be offered
through the press, for the consideration of the
Lord Chancellor in reference to the advice which
he may submit to the Queen. The writer has
endeavoured in the foregoing pages to show from
the Charters and from history that a local claim of
the closest and strongest character upon the bene
fits of this Foundation is possessed by, and may
be urged on behalf of, the neighbourhood of its
ancient site in the East End of London. But
with those reformers, if any there be, whose names
and character entitle them to claim a hearing for
their opinions, and who would advocate a renewed
disestablishment and secularisation of St. Katha
rine's by converting its whole revenues to elee
mosynary or educational purposes, he disclaims
any sympathy. The Dean and Chapter of St.
Katharine's, in his view, are entitled to be main
tained from the corporate revenues of the Collegiate
Church on a scale suitable to their ecclesiastical

108
A.D.1547-1825. rank, and in conformity with the precedent
established by recent legislation for English
Cathedral and Capitular Bodies. The support
of the Master, Brothers, and Sisters, has from
the earliest times of its history formed the
first charge on the revenues of the Foundation,
and it would be idle to go back to the days of its
original poverty as an example for the scale of its
future administration. But when this first charge
has been amply provided for, a large and increasing
eleemosynary fund will be found available, and in
this, as in the benefits arising from the presence
and influence of its historically local College and
Chapter of dignitaries, it may be hoped that East
London at no distant date will largely share. It
is to be hoped, also, that local speakers and writers
in the East of London will abstain from injuring
their own cause by following the example which
has at times been set both there and elsewhere,
and that personal attacks upon the Chapter as a
body of persons spending on themselves the funds
of a charity intended for the poor — attacks which
are as ignorant and unfounded as they are vulgar
and offensive — will never again be heard of or
written. St. Katharine's Hospital is no more a
' Charity ' than Westminster Abbey is a Charity,
and to describe it as such, after the true facts of
the case are known, will leave any writer or speaker
open to the charge of discourtesy, directly offered
to a capitular body whose personal constitution is
worthy of its high and ancient corporate ecclesias-

109
tical dignity, and indirectly through the members A.D.1547-1825.
of the Chapter, to the Queen.
It is open to any of Her Majesty's subjects to
express an opinion as to the manner in which the
revenues of a Collegiate Body in the Church of
England may most advantageously be administered
and applied. It is no less their privilege, and their
right, to urge such arguments in support of local
or special claims as they may think fit to submit
to Her Majesty's advisers ; and to press, if they
desire to do so, the consideration either of the
needs of the present or those of the future in refe
rence to the method of dealing with reversionary
income. On all such questions public opinion, if
based on accurate knowledge, cannot but carry
weight ; while any attempt at popular dictation as
to the manner in which the Queen shall exercise
her ancient and undoubted rights either of regula
tion or of patronage in the venerable Hospital of
St. Katharine near the Tower is certain, as it
deserves, to fail.

EXTEACTS
PEOM THE
REPORT to THE CHAEITT COMMISSIONERS
By Me. SKIRROW, Assistant Commissioner, Jime 1866.

Visitation of
Lord Somers,
the Lord
Chancellor,and others in
1698.

From Page 8 to Page 12.
On September 30, 1698, when Queen Catherine, the widow
of Charles II., was the patron of the Hospital as Queen
Dowager, Sir James Butler, the Master and other Members
and servants of the Hospital having misconducted them
selves, Lord Somers, the then Lord Chancellor, the Lord
Chief Baron, and Dr. Newton (the Commissioners), visited
the Hospital, but the Lord Chancellor alone x gave judgment
in the matter, and made the Rules and Orders hereinafter
mentioned. The Lord Chancellor, after stating ' that divers com
plaints were laid before him by information 2 exhibited by the
Attorney- General, to which Sir James Butler pleaded to the
jurisdiction of the Court, and thought thereby to end and put
a stop to any inquiry into the matter contained in the
information ; but the Queen, being acquainted with these,
was graciously pleased, like a virtuous good lady, to send the
Commissioners to visit the Hospital, and was pleased to do
him (the Lord Chancellor) the honour to appoint him to be
the Visitor of it, and which he was very ready to accept, to
put the matter out of dispute as to the right of visitation,
being only concerned for the good and benefit of the
Hospital,' gave judgment upon various "points, and amongst
1 A Memorandum of the Judgment is to be found amongst the
papers of the Chapter.
2 A Search has been made at the Record Office for these Proceed
ings, but without success.

Ill
other things sentenced Dr. Lake, one of the Brothers, ' for
non-residence, and not duly performing his office,' to sus
pension for six months, and condemned him to pay £15 costs
to Mr. Lee, the promoter, and also removed Sir James Butler
from the office of Master for non-appearance, according to
admonitions, and contumacy for improperly suspending a
Brother and Sister, and using the common seal for corruptly
disposing of the place of a Brother and Sister, for destroying
the writings, neglecting the revenue of the Hospital, and
converting the greatest part thereof to his own use, and for
other offences (of which non-residence was not one), and
condemned him to pay £1,000 costs to Mr. Lee, the
promoter.Rules and Okdees made on the visitation of Lord Somers, the
then Lord Chancellor, dated September 30, 1698, and
given under his hand and seal at the Hospital.1
1. That the Brothers and Sisters and other Members of
the said Hospital for the time being do behave themselves
dutifully and reverently towards the Master of the said
Hospital for the time being, and that the Master carry him
self in a respectful and friendly manner towards the said
Brothers and Sisters ; and that the Master, Brothers, and
Sisters for the time being have a due care and regard for the
Bedeswomen, and for all others belonging to the said Corpora
tion, as becomes Members of the same body.
2. That residence be duly kept by the Master and all other
Members of the said Hospital for the time being, and that
Divine Service in the Church or Chapel of the said Hospital
be duly and constantly performed and attended to ; and that
the said Master do see that the Brothers and Sisters, and the
several Members, Officers, and Servants of the said Hospital,
perform their respective duties ; and in case of failure that
they be admonished and corrected according to the intent and
direction of the Charters and Statutes of the Hospital.
3. And to the end that there may be no defect in the
Celebration of Divine Service and other the duties incumbent
upon the Brothers of the said Hospital, and that they may be
1 A Copy of these Rules and Orders was furnished by the Chapter,
•who are possessed of the Originals.

112
left without excuse in case of any default or omission, that at
some Chapter of the said Hospital, to be held before the Feast
of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the year
of our Lord 1699, the Master, Brothers, and Sisters, by Act
of Chapter, do set down and estabjish some certain orders
whereby the Brothers for the time being shall officiate in the
Celebration of Divine Service and other the duties on them
incumbent in the Church or Chapel of the said Hospital, by
turns, in weekly or monthly courses, as shall appear most
convenient to the said Chapter, during which turns or courses
the Brothers shall respectively attend and officiate in person,
unless in case of sickness or other lawful excuse to be
previously allowed by the Master, or in his absence by two of
the Brothers, in which case of sickness or absence to be
allowed as aforesaid the said Brothers shall procure one of
the said Brothers, or some other fit person, to officiate in his
course. 4. That Chapters be duly and frequently held according
to the Charters of Foundation and Statutes of the said
Hospital, and that all the Acts of Chapter be duly entered
and registered into a book kept for that purpose by a Chapter
clerk or register, to be from time to time elected and
appointed by the Chapter, who is to have and receive such
fees and allowances for making and entering leases and
other writings, and attending the service of the Chapter, as
by the Chapter shall be from time to time appointed.
5. And to the end that nothing be done surreptitiously at
any Chapter to the prejudice of the Hospital, all Acts agreed
upon at any Chapter shall be deliberately read over and
considered at the next Chapter, to the end that the same
may be approved or altered, and the same being so approved
or altered shall be entered and signed by the Master, Brothers,
and Sisters then present and consenting thereto.
6. That no grants of any offices belonging to the said
Hospital, nor lease of any lands or hereditaments belonging
to the said Hospital, shall be made or granted, or anything
which is to be put under the seal of the said Hospital shall be
done, till the matter shall be first fully and fairly proposed,.
considered of, and agreed to at a Chapter. And that all the
ancient offices be granted in the old form, and no unnecessary

113
new offices erected ; and the common seal shall not be put to
any grant, lease, &c, or other thing, at the same Chapter
where the said matter was first proposed or agreed to, but at
some following Chapter, for the better preventing surprise
and undue practice.
7. That to the intent the annual revenues of the said
Hospital may be advanced, whereby the Church and other
public buildings of the Hospital may be kept in good repair,
the Members of the Hospital may have a more comfortable
subsistence, and their number may be increased, according to
the pious devotion of the royal founders, upon all leases here
after to be renewed or made of any Manors or lands belong
ing to the said Hospital one fourth part at least of the real
improved yearly value thereof, including the present reserved
rents, and upon all leases to be hereafter renewed or made of
any houses belonging to the said Hospital one-sixth part at
least of the real improved yearly value thereof, including
the present reserved rents, shall be reserved and made
payable during the continuance of such leases, and that no
leases or grants be hereafter made of any advowson or right of
patronage to any rectories, vicarages, or spiritual promotion,
or of any profits of courts or royalties, but that in all leases
there be proper clauses inserted for excepting the premises
and to make the same effectual to the lessors, their successors
and assigns.
8. That the fines which shall be hereafter received or
taken upon the grant or renewal of any leases shall be publicly
agreed on in chapter, and entered in the chapter book, as well
as expressed in the several leases, and shall be applied to the
uses following ; that is to say, One third part shall be reserved
and set apart in the first place for the repairing of the church
or chapel and other public buildings belonging to the said
Hospital, and for defraying the charges of necessary suits and
expenses concerning the revenues of the said Hospital, if such
shall have happened, and after those performed then for doing
such other things as may make the site of the said Hospital
more convenient for the habitation of the members thereof,
and more healthy and beautiful, or for the purchasing of lands,
or for other public uses for the said Hospital, to be first
approved by the patron or patroness thereof for the time being,
I

114
one other third part of the said fine shall be for the use of the
Master of the said Hospital, in order to encourage his main
taining hospitality, and doing other pious and charitable
things, according to the good intent of the royal founders, and
the remaining third part shall be divided amongst the Brothers
and Sisters of the said Hospital then in being, share and
share alike, for the more comfortable subsistence and better
encouragement in performing their respective duties.
9. That the third part of the said fines which is to be
reserved for the repairs and other public uses of the said
Hospital as aforesaid shall be kept in some safe place in the
said Hospital, under three distinct locks and keys, one of which
keys to remain in the hands of the Master, the second in the
hands of the eldest Brother, and the third in the hands of the
eldest Sister for the time being, unless, upon consideration
thereof to be had in chapter, the Master, Brothers, and Sisters
shall agree that such money be more safely deposited and
trusted in the hands of some person to be nominated and
agreed on in chapter, upon his giving undoubted security to
answer the same upon demand.
10. That as the annual revenues of the said Hospital
shall happen to be increased upon the renewal of leases as
aforesaid such increase shall be divided and applied in manner
following, in the first place for doubling the allowances which
are now made to the poor Bedeswomen belonging to the
Hospital, in the next place to the increasing the present stipends
of £8 per annum to the Brothers of the said Hospital, till the
same shall yearly amount to the sum of £40 to each of them
respectively, and afterwards to the increase of the stipends now
paid to the Sisters of the said Hospital till the same shall
yearly amount to the sum of £20 to each of them respectively ;
and when the said Bedeswomen, Brothers, and Sisters shall
be provided as aforesaid, the surplusage of such increased
revenues shall be applied to the use of the Master of the said
Hospital, until the same, together with so much of the rents
as the Master does now annually receive to his own use, shall
amount in the whole to the yearly sum of £500 ; and in case
the annual revenues of the said Hospital, by due observation
of the orders aforesaid, or by the gifts of pious benefactors, or
otherwise, shall be further increased, such increase shall be

115
applied in the first place for the addition of another Brother,
and afterwards of another Sister, and then of two more Bedes
women, with the like allowances respectively, and afterwards
for the maintaining a competent number of scholars to be
educated in good literature and providing a schoolhouse
and able schoolmaster for their instruction, and for such
other good and charitable purposes, as are suitable to the
intention of the royal founders, and shall be directed, ordered,
and established by the Royal Patron or Patroness for the time
being. 11. That with all convenient speed an exact list or inven
tory be made of all charters, grants, books, writings, evidences,
and muniments belonging to the said Hospital, with a parti
cular number set against each of them, which said list or
inventory shall be fairly entered in the chapter book, and
every writing marked upon the back with the same number
as it is marked in the said inventory, and shall be then orderly
placed in the chest belonging to the said Hospital wherein
the common seal and evidences of the Hospital are appointed
to be kept under three locks, the key of one of the said locks
to remain with the Master, another with the eldest Brother,
and the third with the eldest Sister, every one of which for
the time being shall have in their hands a true copy of the
said catalogue or inventory, which upon their respective
death or removal shall be delivered to such as shall respec
tively succeed them in the places of Master, eldest Brother
or Sister. 12. That when there shall be occasion for perusal of any
of the said writings the same shall be done in open chapter,
otherwise in the presence of the said Master, eldest Brother
and Sister, and when there shall be occasion for the use of
the Hospital that any of the said writings shall be taken out
of the chest it shall be done by consent of chapter, and the
particular writings, as well as the persons to whom the same
are delivered, shall be mentioned in the chapter act, and when
such occasion shall be served the said writings shall be forth
with brought back, and put in the chest.
13. That in case any of the persons to whose custody the
keys are trusted shall refuse to deliver the same, when there
is occasion to use the Common Seal or to resort to the said
i2

116
writings, and shall continue obstinate in such refusal, after
admonition given, and such punishment by suspension or
otherwise as may be regularly inflicted upon them in chapter
for such refusal or obstinacy, yet no force or violence shall be
used in breaking open the said chest, but an humble and sub
missive complaint thereof shall be made to the patron or
patroness for the time being.
14. That upon making any lease the lessee be obliged to
seal and execute a counterpart of such lease upon or before
the delivery of the lease to him, and that all counterparts of
leases be kept in the said chest.
15. That before Michaelmas in the year 1700 the master
do cause Courts of Survey to be held of the several manors
belonging to the said Hospital, and exact inquiries and pre
sentments to be made of all things belonging to the same, and
also an exact and careful survey to be made of all the lands
and hereditaments of the said Hospital, and that the same be
set down in maps, to remain as a memorial, in order to prevent
the disherison of the said Hospital ; and that from time to
time afterwards, once in seven years, such Courts of Survey
shall be held.
16. That with all convenient speed the leases of the several
tenements now in being be pursued and considered of in chapter,
to the end that proper means be used for obliging the tenants
to answer their rents and other duties and services reserved
in their leases, to perform their respective covenants for
repairs, bringing in of terriers, and other matters tending the
good of the Hospital.
17. That before Christmas and Midsummer every year the
receiver general of the Hospital for the time being do exhibit
in chapter a true and perfect account of the rents by him re
ceived for the preceding half-year, and of whom, and what
remains unreceived, and by whom ; and that for the time to
come no receiver general be admitted into the said office until
he shall have given security.
18. That the commissary or official of the jurisdiction of
St. Catherine do grant out no licences for marriages, except
where both or one of the parties do live within the said
jurisdiction, and that no such licence be granted till oath and
bond be first taken as the law requires ; and that all warrants

117
for obtaining such licences be carefully kept at the registry of
the said Hospital ; and that the said commissary take care that
the register of the said Court do carefully register all wills,
and enter all Acts of Court, and that from time to time, once
in seven years, the said commissary and register do cause the
same to be transmitted to the chapter of the said Hospital
to the end that they may be preserved and appear.
19. That all marriages solemnized in the church or
chapel of the said. Hospital be upon Banns duly published, or
licences only granted, and not otherwise ; and that all
marriages there be duly entered and registered by setting
down at the time of the solemnization of the said marriage
the names, surnames, additions, and places of abode of the
parties then married ; and that such books or register be kept
by the clerk of the church or chapel for the time being in a
chest or box with two distinct locks, the key of the one of
the locks to remain from time to time in the possession of the
Brother whose course it. is to officiate in the said chapel, and
the other to remain with the clerk. And for the better
preventing abuses, the Brother whose course for officiating in
the chapel at that time does and shall deliver his key of the
said box to the Brother whose course is to follow, and shall
then, together with the clerk, subscribe their names to the
entries made in the said book during his course, testifying the
truth thereof.
20. That upon any burials in the church or chapel or in
the church or chapel yards of the said Hospital no more than
the usual and accustomed fees which have been for twenty
years last past be demanded or taken ; and that no fee or
reward for breaking of the ground, either in the church or
chancel, more than what had been accustomably paid for
twenty years last past, shall be taken or received, which said
fees or rewards for breaking the ground shall be equally
divided amongst the Brothers for the time being.
21. That the velvet and other palls used in the said
chapel at burials be in the keeping of the two eldest
bedeswomen for the time being, in a chest with two locks,
and each of them to have a key ; and that the fees and
perquisites paid for the use of such palls be equally divided
amongst all the bedeswomen for the time being, but with

118

some reasonable allowance to be made to the two eldest for
making and keeping clean the said palls.
22. That within the space of two years next ensuing, the
Master, Brothers, and Sisters of the said Hospital do make
provision of silver plate for the decent use and service of the
communion table ; and that with all speed such repairs of the
buildings belonging to the Hospital as are of necessity be
made. 23. That when and as soon as it shall be in the power of
the Master, Brothers, and Sisters of the said Hospital, by or
upon the renewing of leases or otherwise, the door lately
made into the cloisters of the said Hospital be stopped up,
and the common orchard belonging to the Hospital be
restored to the public use thereof.
24. That the Master, Brothers, and Sisters of the said
Hospital for the time being do from time to time use all care
and diligence for the discovery and recovery of all rents and
other estates or revenues belonging to the said Hospital
which are concealed from or not answered to the said
Hospital, and for the removal of all nuisances, encroachments,
or other matters done to the prejudice or damage of the said
Hospital or the revenues thereof, and for the ascertaining or
recovery of all rights, royalties, jurisdictions, and revenues
thereof belonging to the said Hospital.

From Page 16 to Page 24.

Royal War
rant, 1829.

Certificate of
the Lords of
the Treasury,
1829.

By a Warrant dated June 10, 1829, under the Royal Sign
Manual and the hands of three Commissioners of the
Treasury, the site of the present Hospital Buildings, contain
ing about one acre, was granted to the Master, &c, to be
holden by them and their successors in trust for the purposes-
of the Hospital, free from any claims of the King, but subject
to certain stipulations for the maintaining, painting, &c, of
the buildings, and for payment to the Commissioners of Woods
and Forests of the due proportions assessed for roads, watch,
&c, on Crown Lands.
By a Certificate under the hands of the same Commis
sioners, dated June 10, 1829, in consideration of- £2,000, the

119
site of the Master's lodge and gardens, containing about two
acres, was granted to the Master, &c, to be held by them in
trust fur the Hospital, free from all claims of the King, but
subject to the same stipulations as to maintaining the buildings,
and paying the assessments for roads, &c, as in the case of
the Hospital itself ; as payment of the £2,000 was forgiven,
the Chapter obtained the site of the Master's lodge, as well
as that of the Hospital, for nothing.
1 The expense of re-establishing this ancient Hospital on Expense of
a modern site has been enormous, and the erection of the re- establish-
several buildings in connection therewith not a little mis- ho^ng the
managed. Little or no allowance was made for the nature of Hospital in
the soil, which was of clay; the foundations were defective, paerjfes S
and the dry rot ensued. The outlay on the interior of the
Chapel was profuse, and the restoration therein of the Exeter
Monument alone cost upwards of £1,000. A useless pump,
placed in front of the Chapel, absorbed many hundred
pounds; and the Master's lodge, with its stables, gardens,
and conservatory, was an unnecessarily expensive feature
in the plan.

Total cost of re-establishing the Hospital
Defrayed as follows :
From the Dock Company
„ Interest on Exchequer Bills, &c. .
„ Domus Account and Income
„ Loan from Chapter Clerk

This loan was secured to the Chapfer clerk by four
Chapter bonds, three for £500 each, and one for £250, at £5
per cent, interest (occasionally reduced to £4 per cent.), and
bearing date December 2, 1829, all of which, notwithstanding
the lapse of time, remain still unpaid.
The expense of repairing and upholding buildings which
1 See, too, p. 872 of the Report of the Commissioners for Inquiry
concerning Charities.

£ s.
44,709 0

d. 7

£ s.
36,600 0
3,034 2
3,324 18
1,750 0

d. 00 7
0

44,709 0

7

120

Purchases of
Land made
under the
Sanction of the
Court of
Chancery.

Schedule of
Purchases,Sales, and
Exchanges since 1837.
Year 1841.

Year 1844,

Year 1854.

Year 1856.

cost so much in their first erection amounted from 1826 to
1857, a period of 32 years, to no less a sum than £32,088 2s. Id.
£ s. d.
["yearly, for 32 years . . 1,002 15 0
Averages < for first 5 years . . . 28,759 0 01
[for last 10 years . . . 681 13 2
The purchases of land made under the sanction of the
Court of Chancery since the removal of the Hospital, and
prior to 1836-7, which absorbed £87,440 7s. of the
£158,837 lis. 7d. Consols, are sufficiently detailed at pp.
873-4 of the Report of the Commissioners for inquiring con
cerning Charities, whilst the subsequent purchases and other
dealings with the landed estate since 1836-7 were as follows :
A Schedule of purchases, sales, and exchanges, since 1837,
the date of the Report of the Commissioners for inquiring
concerning Charities.
Sale to the London and Blackwall Railway Company of cer
tain warehouses and premises situate in Cooper's Row, Tower
Hill, for £4,080 invested in Consols, under the direction of
the Court of Chancery, of which £2,350 15s. 5d. like Stock
remains. (See Schedule of Real Estate, No. 2, and Schedule
of Personal Estate, No. 2, post.)
Purchase of an estate comprising Somerfield and Herringe
Farms, in the parishes of Sellinge and Lympne, Kent, con
taining 471 acres under the directiQn of the Court of Chancery,
for £12,250, defrayed out of the Stock derived from money
paid by the Dock Company.
Sale of la. lr. 16p., part of the Quarley Estate, to the
South- Western Railway Company, for £100, which was ex
pended in sewerage, as next mentioned.
Sale of 2a. 3r. 4p., part of the. Berengrave Estate, to the
East Kent Railway Company, for their line of Sheerness, for
£124. 10s. 9d., which was expended, together with the £100
last mentioned, and £575. 9s. 3d. derived from the Chapter
Funds (in the whole £800), in making new sewers and drains
from the Master's Lodge and all the houses of the Hospital
in the Regent's Park to communicate with the newly-formed
common sewer in Albany Street.

1 Sic : but probably total sum.

121
The Chapter granted under the Schools Sites Act, for a Year 1860.
nominal consideration, one rood of ground for a site for the
national school at Bythorn, where they have an estate.
Sale to the Crown of 15a. Or. 32p., with clearance rights Year 1863.
over 146a. lr. 4p., part of the Danley Farm at Minster (see
No. 7, Schedule of Real Estate, post), for the purposes of the
national defences at Sheerness, for £1,150, in the hands of
the Accountant- General and uninvested, which sum it is pro
posed to lay out in the purchase of other land in the locality
not required for such defences, as arranged between the sur
veyors of the Crown and the Chapter.
Sale of two houses, Nos. 23 and 24 Trinity Square, Tower year 1863.
Hill, to the Commissioners of Sewers for the City of London,
for £1,811, which was invested, under the direction of the
Court of Chancery, in £1,994. 10s. Three per Cent. Consols.
The dividends are divided as fines, as it is said, under Lord
Somers' Constitution.
Exchange under the Inclosure Commissioners of Land at Year 1863.
Rushenden (see No. 6, Schedule of Real Estate, post), the
Chapter taking 11a. lr. 37p. adjoining the homestead and
belonging to the Crown, and the Crown taking 14a. 3r. lp. of
marsh land belonging to the Chapter.

SCHEDULE.

Situation and Description of Property Quantity

I. 1. A Piece of Ground having a Frontage on
Tower Hill, and containing Square
Yards, formerly Part of the Site of 19
Houses in Trinity Square and Barking
Churchyard.
2. Trinity Square, No. 33 ... .

3. Houses, College Street, City .
4. Queendown in Hartlip, Kent. Warren 52 2 34
and Underwood.

5. Berengrave in Bainham, Hartlip and 485 3 3
Halstow next Upchurch, Kent. Farm
House, Buildings, Arable, Pasture, and
Marsh.
6. Eushenden in Minster, Isle of Sheppey. 394 2 3
Farm House, Buildings, Arable, Pas
ture, and Marsh.
7. Danley in Minster. Farm Hnuse, Build- 232 2 36
ings, Arable, Pasture, and Marsh.
8. Quarley in Quarley and Over Wallop, 1,738 0 24
Hants. Farm House, Buildings, Cot
tages, Arable, Meadow, Pasture, and
Down Lands.
9. GollardsinAmport, Hants. Farm House, 226 2. 34
Buildings, Arable, Pasture, and Mea
dow.
10. Chesingbury in Bnford, Wilts. Mes- 669 0 19
suage, Buildings, Cottages, Arable,
Meadow, Pasture, and Down Land.

11. Queenbury in East Eeod, Herts. Mes- 227 2 15
suage, Buildings, Meadow, Pasture,
and Arable.
II. 12. Mackland, Rairham, Kent. Arable, Pas- 95 2 30
ture, and Marsh Lands.

III. 13. Wallet and New Barn in Boughton, Mai- 103 0 32
herbe, Kent. Farm House, Buildings,
Arable, Pasture, and Hop Ground.
IV. 14. Bythornin Bythorn andKeystone, Hunts. 625 0 0
Messuages, Buildings, Cottages, Arable,
Meadow, and Pasture.
16. Sporle in Sporle, Norfolk. Messuage, 670 0 0
Buildings, Arable, Meadow, and Pas
ture.
16. Sporle Hall in Sporle, Norfolk. Mes- 620 0 0
suage, Buildings, Arable, Meadow, and
Pasture.
17. Palgrave in Sporle, Norfolk. Messuage, 675 0 0
Buildings, Arable, Meadow, and Pas
ture.
18. Somerfield in Sellinge, Kent. Messuage, 244 0 0
Buildings, Arable, Meadow, and Hop
Ground.
19. Harringe in Sellinge, Kent. Messuage, 227 0 0
Buildings, Arable, Meadow, Pasture,
and Hop Ground.
V. Master's Lodge and Hospital Buildings .

Lessee or Tenant

Three several Leases to Ann
Darant Harris (ob.), assigned
to George Myers and others.
George Myers, David B. Myers,
and Joseph P. Myers.

James Wells Brown .
Richard Tylden and Others

Betsy Taylor and another,
Executors of Thomas Taylor,
deceased.
James Lake ....

Sarah Terry, assigned to Right
Hon. Stephen Rumbold
Lushington.
Marquis of Winchester

Ditto
John Grove

Caroline Mary Vernon Har-
court.
Betsy Taylor and another,
Executors of Thomas Taylor,
deceased.

John Seeker (the ChapterClerk),
Executor of Isaac Onslow
Seeker.
Thomas George . . . •
The Executors of Thomas
Matthews.
The Executors of Thomas Mat
thews and Chas. Palmer.
Thomas Wells . . . •

Frederick George Crew

James Bass

14 4

1 On Expiration of this Lease this Property is expected to produce about £4,000 a Year,
* This Bent will be increased to

SCHEDULE.

Michaelmas 1860

Midsummer 1864

March 25.

June 24
1794

Michaelmas

Michaelmas 1860

Ditto

Michaelmas 1849

Ditto

Michaelmas 1856

Michaelmas 1863

Fine on last
Renewal

Mil

[chaelmas
1861. .

Michaelmas 1860

OldMichael-
[' mas 1856.
Ditto .
\ Ditto .
Old Michael-

Old Michael.
mas 1858.

£ s. d.
280 0 0
305 0 0
315 0 0

500 0 0
160 0 0
140 0 0
550 0 0
906 3 0
502 0 0
0 10 0
0 10 0
2,555 0 0
425 0 0
Nil.

; lo o

Rent reserved

Annual Value

Lives for
which Leases held

£ s. d.
20 0 0 \
15 0 0
17 0 0

At rate for 1st
Quarter of
£10, for Re
mainder of
Term, £43.
16 0 0
2 0 0

40 0 0
100 0 0
55 0 0
23 0 0
7 0 0

For the Con
tinuance of
the elder Life,
£22, after his
Death, £52.s
52 10 0

100 0 0

1,000 0 0

760 0 0
with the Game.

640 0 0
with the Game.

785 0 0
with the Game.

381 0 0

311 0 0

95 0 0'

37 0 0
740 0 0
606 0 0
500 0 0
1,900 0 0 J
770 0 0
220 0 0
100 0 0
75 0 0
1,000 0 0
760 0 0
640 0 0
785 0 0
381 0 0
311 0 0

4,404 10 0 ! 8,920 0 0

William Belcher
(ob.) . . .
William Bland (ob.)
William Bland the
younger
Thomas Taylor
George Frederick
Carnell
Frank Harnett

Richard Henry Cox
(ob.) . . .
Henry Richard Cox
Prince George, now
Duke of Cambridge

Wm, Chafin Grove
Cob.) . . .
Harry Tbos. Grove
Wm. Chafiu Grove
the younger

Thomas Taylor
George Frederick
Carnell
Frank Harnett

Age
of Lives
on
Grant

4942

21 17

5416

3227

Observations

Mode of Acquisition
unknown.
Acquired under Charter
of Queen Elizabeth.

Acquired under Grant
of Richard II.

Acquired under Charter
of Henry VI.

Acquired under Charter
of 19th Henry VI.

Acquired under Charter
of Queen Eleanor.
Acquired by Purchase
under Blackwall Rail
way Act. Lease en
dorsed on the Lease
to Berengrave.
Acquired by Purchase
under Stepney Act.
Acquired by Purchase
with Part of Dock
Money. Ditto.

Ditto.Ditto. Ditto.Ditto.

Tbis Estate, up to 1861, comprised two other Houses, then sold to the Commissioners of Sewers.
»2 on the Death of William Chafiu Grove.

124

Amount

£ *. d.
2,638 14 9

2,350 15 5

6,563 6 8

1,994 10 0

62,947 6 10

Description

Consols .

Consols .

Consols .

Consols

How acquired

of Consideration
Money received on Sale
of the Precinct Estate to
the St Katherine's Dock
Company.
Besidue of Consideration
Money raised on Sale of
Warehouses in Cooper's
Bow, Tower Hill, to the
BJackwall Bailway Com
pany.
Invested by the St. Kathe-
rine Dock Company to
meet the Loss of Fees by
Members and Officers of
the Chapter, by the Be-
moval from the Precinct
at the Tower.
Consideration Money re
ceived from the City
Commissioners of Sewers
on Sale of Houses at the
Corner of Tower Street.

In whose Names invested

Accountant General to ac
count ' ex parte the tit.
Katherine's Dock Com
pany.'
Accountant General to ac
count ' ex parte the St.
Katherine's Dock Com
pany.*

The Hon. William Ashley,
Master of the Hospital,
the Bev. George Frede
rick, Louisa Nicolay
(deceased), and John
Seeker.
Accountant General to ac
count ' ex parte the City
Commissioners of Sewers
in the Matter of St.
Katherine's Hospital.'

Income from Bents .
„ Consols .

Gross
Annual ]
Income I

S. ft.

4,404 10 0
1,888 8 3
6,292 18 3

& 5. J.
1,561 3 2

70 10 5

196 18 0

59 16 8

The house property, Nos. 1 and 2 in the above
Schedule, is now let for £95 a year, but will
ultimately produce upwards of £4,000.
Of the real property there are five classes,
viz. : — 1. The old estates let upon fines.
2. The Mackland Farm at Rainham, pur
chased with money derived from the sale
of old estate, now let at rackrent.
3. The Boughton Malherbe Estate, purchased
with money derived from the sale of old
estate formerly, and now let on fine.
4. The new estates, purchased with the pro
duce of stock representing the dock
money, now let at rackrent.

125
5. The Property in hand, viz.: —
The Master's Lodge and Hospital Build
ings in the Regent's Park.

Acreage

Rent reserved

Present supposed

Annual Value

1. ClasB (including Nos. 1 and 2, 1
House Property) comprises . J

A. it. e.
4,027 1 8
95 2 30
103 0 32
3,061 S 0
In hand.

£ s. d.
412 10 0
100 0 0
15 0 0
3,877 0 0
In hand.

£ s. d.
4,868 0 0
10>> 0 0
75 0 0
3,877 0 0
In hand.

7,287 0 30

4,404 10 0

8,920 0 0

From this it may be inferred that if to the present annual
value of the Real Estate, viz., £8,920, is added the sum of
£4,000, less £95, viz., £3,905, in respect of the House
Property Nos. 1 and 2, the yearly rental of the Hospital
Estates will at some future time amount to no less a sum
than £12,825.
But it is to be observed that such annual value is not
founded upon any survey expressly made for the purpose of
ascertaining the fact, which would have entailed unnecessary
expense upon the charity, but upon the opinions of the senior
Brother and the Chapter clerk, who periodically visit the
Estates and superintend their management.
Observations on the real Estate.
1. The House Property at Tower Hill and Barking
Churchyard. This estate, up to 1861, comprised two other
houses which were in that year sold to the City Commissioners
of Sewers under their Act of Parliament, and the purchase
money invested in £1,927. Is. 6d. Consols, in the name of the
Accountant General.
In 1865 Messrs. Myers and Co., contractors and builders,
being the assignees of four leases of the property represented
by the space enclosed with the coloured lines marked on the
following plan, and having purchased or contracted to purchase
from the Commissioners of Sewers a freehold piece of ground
coloured blue, which (together with certain premises imme -

126
diately abutting thereon, and now thrown into Tower Street),
had been sold by the Chapter to the same commissioners as
above mentioned, it was arranged between the Chapter, acting
under the advice of Mr. Hardwick, their surveyor, and
Messrs. Myers and Co., that the latter should sell and convey
to the Chapter for £5,000 the piece of ground coloured blue
(the same not being required by them for sewers), and that
Messrs. Myers and Co. should surrender the four leases of
which they are the assignees, and accept a new lease from the
Chapter of the premises therein contained, and of the piece of
ground to be so purchased by the Chapter, for a term of forty
years from the completion of the building, at an improved
rent of £240 a year, such lease to be renewable upon fine at
the expiration of one third of the term, and should also under
take to erect thereon new warehouses and offices according to
a fixed plan. And it was further arranged between the same
parties that a certain slip of frontage lately acquired by
Messrs. Myers and Co. from the Crown, and coloured brown
on the plan, together with other slips in the rear or. west side
of the premises next Barking churchyard, should be also
conveyed to the Chapter, and included in the new lease to be
granted by them to Messrs. Myers and Co., who are at the
same time to dedicate to the public as a road or way another
piece of ground on the north side of the premises.
The £2,350. 15s. M. Consols, the £1,927. Is. 9d. Consols,
and a certain part of the £52,038. 14s. 9d. Consols, the balance
of stock derived from the dock company, are to be applied in
payment of the £5,000 ; the purchase, &c, is to be made
under the direction of the Court ; the conveyance of the land
so purchased is to be taken directly from the Commissioners
of Sewers, and not from Messrs. Myers and Co., to the
Chapter ; and other arrangements and adjustments are to be
carried out by mutual conveyances and exchanges. The
annual value of the warehouses and offices, when completed,
is estimated at not less than £4,000.
The Trinity Square Property.
2. This is included in the above arrangements with Messrs.
Myers and Co.
3. The lease of the five messuages in College Street is

127
renewable by custom on fine at the expiration of one-third
part of the term.
4. Queendown, containing 52a. 2r. 34p., was by a lease,
dated 24th June 1794, demised for three lives, two of which
have dropped.
5. Berengrave, containing 485a. 3r. 3p., situate on the
Chatham and Dover Railway, is considered to be a valuable
estate. 6. Rushenden, containing 394a. 2r. 3p., and lately made by
a recent exchange with the Crown a convenient farm, has
been improved by drainage and good cultivation.
7. Danley in the parish of Minster, containing 232a. 2r.
36p., will produce a rent of from £3 to £4 an acre when an
approach is made to Sheerness, concerning which the Chapter
are in treaty with the Commissioners of Her Majesty's "Woods
arjd Forests, who have consented to sell to the Chapter such
parts of the intervening marsh land acquired by the Crown as
may not be ultimately found necessary for the defences of
Sheerness. 8 and 9. Quarley, containing 1,738a. Or. 4p., is the largest
estate of which the Chapter are possessed, but it is down
land, and not worth at rackrent more than 15s. an acre.
Henry Richard Cox having died in June 1865, the ques
tion of renewing this lease has arisen, one which is to be sub
mitted to the Charity Commissioners by the Chapter. On the
last renewal in 1834 the fine taken was £2,800, but the £1
received by the Chapter in 1850 (see the schedule of fines)
was paid to them upon the granting of the new lease to the
Marquis of Winchester, upon terms precisely similar to those
on which Mr. Cox held.
9. It is supposed that Lord Winchester will be inclined
to purchase this estate as well as Goddards, containing
226a. 2r. 35p., also held by him, and adjoining to Quarley.
10. Chesingbury, containing 669a. Or. 19p., consists
of down with a thin soil. The farm premises, formerly the
Priory of Chesingbury, are, considering their age, in fair
repair. 11. The farm buildings at Queenbury, containing
227a. 2r. 15p., are in good condition, the Chapter having
allowed the tenant £130 in 1855 towards their reparation.

128
12. Rainham, Kent, Macklands. This property, consisting
of 95a. 2r. 30p., was purchased some years ago under the
direction of the Court of Chancery for £2,500, the proceeds
of money invested in stock, and derived from a sale to the
Blackwall Railway Company of premises in Cooper's Row,
Tower Hill, let to the East India Company. It is not let
upon fine, but at rackrent.
13. Wallet and New Barn. This estate was purchased
some years ago, under the direction of the Court of Chancery,
with money previously invested in stock, and derived from a
sale to William Mellish of land belonging to the Hospital in
the parish of Stepney in the Isle of Dogs.
14. Bythorn, containing 625a., consists of stiff land, and
the farm buildings, together with nine cottages, which were
burnt down in 1864, are in the course of re-erection by the
Chapter, at a cost of £3,500 ; and as only part of that sum,
viz., £1,600, is covered by the insurance, the residue, viz.
£1,900, must be defrayed by the Chapter, a heavy charge upon
the future resources of the Hospital; but at the time of
effecting such insurance £1,600 was considered as the full
value of the premises.
15. Sporle, containing 670a., is a good estate and in
good condition. In 1836 the Chapter expended about £2,500
in improving the farm buildings.
16. Sporle Hall, containing 620a., is also a good estate
in good condition. The Chapter since 1855 have laid out
about £1,500 in improving the premises.
17. Palgrave, containing 675a., is also a good estate in
good condition. The Chapter since 1836 have expended
about £l,500 in improving the premises.
18. Somerfield in Sellinge, containing 244a., is also a
good estate and in good condition. The Chapter, since 1855,
have laid out about £500 in the improvement of the premises.
19. Harringe, containing 227a., consists of good land;
and the farmhouse, although old, is in fair repair. The
Chapter have since 1858 expended about £600 upon the
buildings and cottages, and a further outlay of £200 for other
improvements is in progress. The land is said to be well
farmed. The Chapter, with a view to the improvement of their

129

estates, find draining tiles for the tenants,, who load and lay
the same free of charge, the whole cost averaging from
£4. 10s. to £5 an acre, £2. 10s. of which falls on the tenant
and the residue on the Chapter. This system has been in
operation upon most of the farms, and with much benefit,
but more particularly with regard to those of Bythorn (14)
and Sporle Hall (16).
Observations on the Personal Estate.
1. The £52,038. 14s. 9d. Consols is the balance of the
stock representing the £125,000, the price paid by the Dock
Company for the Precinct estate.
2. The £2,350. 15s. 5ci Consols is the balance of the
stock representing the £4,800 paid by the Blackwall Railway
Company, and the dividends derived therefrom are appor
tioned amongst the Members of Chapter as follows : —
5th July 1864. £ s. d.
By half-year's dividend on £2,350. 15s. 5d. Consols
then due •  34 7 7
Add half-year's rent of Macklands, purchased with
part of the consideration money received
from the Blackwall Railway Company, due
Midsummer day 1864 . . . . 48 12 11
Together . . 83 0 6
Deduct credit given in rental, Midsummer 1864,
for amount of half-year's rent reserved in
the lease to East India Company of the
warehouses in Cooper's Row, sold to the
Blackwall Railway Company Balance .
Apportionment of balance in the nature £ s. d.
of Fines . . • •
To the Master one third . . . 16 6 6
To the Chapter account, one third .16 6 6
ToeachBrotherandSister,£2.14s.5c*. 16 6 6

34 1 0

48 19 6

£48 19 6

K

130

Description of
Master'sLodge.

Description
of Hospital
Buildings.

Warrant of
Adelaide, the
Queen Dow
ager, of May
1849.

3. The £6,563. 6s. 8d. Consols represents the fund
created for annual compensation, under the agreement of Octo
ber 17, 1825.
4. The £1,994. 10s. Consols represents the purchase-
money paid by the Commissioners of Sewers as above men
tioned. The Master's lodge, together with a coach-house for two
or three carriages, stabling for seven horses, conservatory,
greenhouses, and forcing pits, with the appurtenances, stand
upon two acres of ground the property of the Chapter, which
constitute the inner ring on the plan, the outer ring thereon
being grass land in part planted with trees, and held of the
Crown by the present Master of the Hospital, as tenant from
year to year, he, and not the Chapter, paying an annual
rent of £7. 10s. The premises for their size constitute one of
the most desirable residences in London. On the basement
there are six rooms, on the ground-floor a hall, dining-room,
library, two drawing rooms and another room ; on the first
floor seven bed-rooms and dressing rooms, together with five
attics, and a laundry containing two rooms.
The Hospital buildings, with small gardens at the rear, occu
pied by the Brothers and Sisters, are sufficiently convenient, but
of a much more modest and less pretentious character than
the Master's lodge. The six houses assigned to the Brothers
and Sisters originally contained three rooms on the ground
and a similar number on the first and second floors, together
with small attics for two maid-servants, but one of these
houses (No. 3 on the plan) subsequently received an addition
of three rooms, partly at the cost of the Chapter, and partly at
that of the Brother then occupying such house. The Chapter
House (No. 5 on the plan) is built against the south side of
the chapel, and connected with it are apartments assigned to
the Chapter clerk, which he occasionally occupies. In 1828
a small school-room for girls, and apartments over the same
for the Mistress, were erected against the north side of the
chapel, but in 1849 a larger school-room for boys was added
under the following circumstances.
By a warrant1 under the seal of Adelaide the Queen
1 A Copy of this Warrant was furnished by the Chapter, who are
possessed of the Original.

131
Dowager, and dated May 4, 1849, after reciting the orders
of Lord Lyndhurst, which state that the annual sum of £300
should be paid and applied for the maintenance of a school or
schools at the Hospital for the education and clothing of
thirty-six boys, or of twenty-four boys and twelve girls, more
or less of each, at the discretion of the Master, Brothers,
and Sisters, it was ordered that the number of the boys so
educated and clothed should be from time to time, as the
revenues of the Hospital would admit, progressively increased
to the number of thirty-six, and that the number of the girls
so educated and clothed should in like manner be increased
to the number of twenty-four, and that such increased number
of boys and girls should be entitled to and enjoy all and every
the privileges, profits, and gratuities, rewards and advantages
whatsoever as of right then enjoyed by the boys and girls
then educated at the schools under the said orders.
In order to carry out the provisions of this warrant, a
school-room for boys was erected for £546. 13s. 4sd. on the
north side of the chapel, and the apartments originally
dedicated to the schoolmistress apportioned between her and
the Master. The open spaces facing Upper Albany Street
are used as playgrounds, the one on the south for the boys,
and that on the north for the girls, the former of whom enter
their school from the last-mentioned street, and the latter
their school from the Regent's Park. " The stables appro
priated to the Brothers and Sisters are not at present in
their use.
The chapel, which has no cure of souls, and contains 300
sittings, was erected and fitted up at an enormous cost, and
ultimately consecrated on November 30, 1829, by the Bishop
of London. A raised pew is dedicated to the use of the
Master and a similar pew to that of the Brothers, whilst the
Sisters, servants, and school-children occupy other places.
The residents in the immediate neighbourhood of the Hos
pital hire of the Chapter sittings at one guinea each, and the
funds thus obtained are passed to an account distinct from
that of the Hospital, and kept by the Reader.

K 2

132

The Chapel
account.

7J-
0 0

The Chapel Account, kept by the Reader, for the Tear
ending December 31, 1864.
Receipts. £ *¦
Balance in hand . . . . . 23 4
From the pew-rents of 91 sittings . . . 95 11
Balance from surveyor  0 12

Expenditure.
To a woman for cleaning the chapel
Tradesmen's bills for repairs and service of chapel
Pew openers, two vergers, and the organ blower
Plate cleaning and sundries
Balance in hand .....

The balance in hand not required for the chapel is trans
ferred to the general Hospital account.
The Reader does not keep the chapel account distinct from
his private account at the banker's, a mode of administration
which may be improved.
BENEFICES BELONGING- TO THE HOSPITAL.

119 7

n

£ s.

d.

19 5

4

40 5

4

r 25 10

0

4 2

8*

30 4

8

119 7

n

Places

Incumbents

Patron

Date of
Appointment

Annual Value

Popula tion

How acquired

1. Rectory of St. Peter,
Northampton - cum-
tTpton.
2. Perpetual Curacy of
Kingsthorpe, North
amptonshire.
3. Eectory of Quarley,
Hants.

The Rev. H. de
Saumarez.
The Rev. J. H.
Glover (one of
the Brothers).
The Rev. W. C.
Mackic.

Chapter Do.
Do.

April 1850
March 18561821

£400 £830£300

1,252 1,906 182

By Charter Bd.
ward H., dated
August 26,1809
Ditto. By Charter ol
Henry VI. of
August 18, in
19th year of
his reign.

Observations on the Benefices.
1 and 2. By Order of Council, dated March 9, 1850, the
rectory of St. Peter, Northampton, was divided into the
rectory of St. Peter-cum-Upton and the perpetual curacy of
Kingsthorpe. The £400, the annual value of St. Peter's, is
derived entirely from glebe, which is situate in the hamlet of
Upton. A new rectory house has been erected with £1,000

133
supplied out of the Hospital income, and by money derived
from other sources. The church of St. Peter was restored
some years ago, under the advice of the Archseological Society,
which, together with the Church Building Society, contri
buted most liberally towards the expense. The Chapter also
gave £50 from the Hospital revenues towards the Reparation
Fund. The Reverend H. de Saumarez was not one of the
Brothers, but his two immediate predecessors were Brothers
of the Hospital.
The £830, the gross annual income of Kingsthorpe (net
£700), is derived from glebe there situate, and the dividends
on £615 Consols, in the hands of the Accountant- General of
the Court of Chancery, derived from the sale of part of such
glebe to the Market Harborough Railway Company. In 1863
the church was restored at the cost of £2,500, of which sum
£50 was supplied by the Chapter from the Hospital income,
and the residue from other sources. The parsonage house is
in good repair. The Reverend J. H. Glover at the time of his
nomination by the Chapter to this incumbency was a Brother
of the Hospital.
3. The church is damp in consequence of the surrounding
ground being higher than the floor ; but the Chapter intend
contributing £100 towards its general reparation and improve
ment, the payment, however, to be conditional upon such
ground being levelled. The parsonage house is said to be in
moderate repair. The Rev. Charles Mackie never filled the
office of Brother.
[For the sake of brevity, pages 24 and 25, being almost
entirely historical, are omitted.]
From Page 26 to Page 38.
The administration of the charity, regard being more
particularly had to the orders of 1698 and 1829, is conducted
as follows :— In Chapter the Master, Brothers, and Sisters
have one vote each, but the requisite majority,.which is four,
need not include a Brother and a Sister. The presence,
however, of both a Brother and Sister is necessary to constitute
a perfect Chapter. When the votes are equal the Master has

134

not a casting vote, and consequently the subject matter of the
equal division must be submitted to another Chapter if a final
decision is sought. The Chapter have not established by
Minute any orders for the regulation of Divine service, but it
has been arranged by the Brothers amongst themselves, for
their own convenience, that instead of weekly or monthly
courses of duty, each course by each Brother should extend
over a continuous period of four consecutive months, called
residence. The Chapter seldom meets oftener than three
times a year, but quarterly meetings ought strictly to be held.
The Chapter clerk takes a minute of the proceedings at the
meetings, which, although signed at the next Chapter, are
frequently acted upon before signature, from the necessity of the
case, as when considerable repairs are immediately required; but
for small matters, not exceeding £10 in amount, the Brother in
residence gives an order, which is referred to and then counter
signed by the London surveyor, who superintends the work.
The old property of the Hospital has always been let for three
lives upon fine, and in case of renewal the matter is submitted
to the Chapter surveyor, who arranges the terms ; but less
than one-fourth part of the improved yearly value in the case
of land, and of one-sixth part of the same value in the case of
houses, is frequently reserved as rent, in contravention of the
seventh rule of Lord Somers, whereby the fine is propor-
tionably increased, and the members of Chapter benefited at the
expense of the charity.

Schedule of Fines taken by the Chapter since 1834, the date of the

Eeport of

the late Charity Commissioners.

Date

Property

Amount

Date

Amount

£ s. d.
£ a.d.
1838
Berengrave . . . .
1,423 0 0
1854
Rushenden ....
655 0 0
Walter Court . .
500 0 0
557 10 0
1840
Rushenden .
800 0 0
Wallet Court
75 0 0
Danley .
455 0 0
1857
Queenbury ....
400 0 0
Berengrave .
788 10 0
Chesingbury . . .
2,555 0 0
1843
Queenbury
2,100 0 0
1860
Tower Hill (Harris) .
900 0 0
1846
Tower Hill (Harris)
800 0 0
1861
Wallet Court
298 10 0
Wallet Court .
70 0 0
Danley ....
602 0 0
Rushenden .
539 0 0
1863
Rushenden ....
906 3 0
1847
Berengrave . .
550 0 0
Elbow Lane (now College
Danley . . . m
543 0 0
Street) ....
160 0 0
1849
Elbow Lane .
450 0 0
1864
Queenbury ....
425 0 0
1850
Quarley (concurrent)
10 0
Tower Hill (Harris, now
Queenbury
340 0 0
Myers) ....
600 0 0
1851
Tower Hill (Chambers)
1,200 0 0
£18,493 13 0
Annual average for 27 years
£684 19 0
135
The fines are apportioned as follows, viz., one third part
thereof to the Chapter for repairs and other expenses of the
establishment, one other third part to the Master, and the
remaining one-third part to the Brothers and Sisters, share
and share alike. The first-mentioned one-third part or domus
fund is kept distinct from the general funds of the Hospital,
and passed to an account kept in the name of the Chapter at
Messrs. Gosling and Co. bankers, London, upon which one of
the Brothers and the Chapter clerk draw cheques to meet the
expenditure charged upon such fund.
By the orders of 1698 the system of fines, if not expressly
permitted, is implicitly recognised ; but the 29th section of
the Charitable Trusts Amendment Act, 1855, enacts, that it
shall not be lawful for persons acting in the administration of
any charity, otherwise than with the authority of Parliament
or of a court or judge of competent jurisdiction, or according
to a scheme legally established, or with the approval of the
Board, to grant a lease in consideration wholly or in part
of any fine, and consequently the question arises, whether the
Chapter have since the Act power under these orders to grant
of their own motion such a lease, or, in other words, whether
such orders are ' a scheme legally established,' so as to bring
the case within the exception. It is to be observed, that since
such Act several leases have been granted on fine by the
Chapter without the sanction of either the Court of Chancery
or of the Board, as appears from the list of fines and the
schedule of real Estate.
All the rents and profits of the estates, which are received
by the Chapter clerk, who is also the receiver, instead of being
passed to an account kept at a banker's in the name of the
Chapter, are transferred by him to his own private account at
Messrs. Hoares and Co., bankers, London ; and although the
Hospital payments in the Chapter clerk's pass-book are ticked
off thus V, to distinguish them from private payments, I
recommend for obvious reasons an alteration in a system in
itself so objectionable. Under a general order of Chapter the
Chapter clerk pays all salaries, stipends, and ordinary out
goings ; but a special order is made empowering him to defray
extraordinary expenses.
An index is kept of the charters and writings relating to

136

the Hospital, which are placed in the muniment room, under
the custody of the Chapter clerk, but many of these have been
most seriously damaged at one time by fire and at another
time by water. The common seal is affixed to all leases, the
counterparts of which are executed by the lessees, upon whom
the expense of such instruments for the most part falls.
In 1700 surveys were made and maps drawn of the real
property. The estates are visited from time to time by the
Chapter clerk and one or more members of the Chapter. In
surances are effected upon the buildings upon the charity
estates in the Hand in Hand and Royal Exchange offices ;
that effected upon the Hospital itself and the Master's Lodge
is apportioned as follows : —
On the chapel, with pulpit, pews, desks, and
furniture
Organ and case
Altar picture ,
School house adjoining
Chapter house .
Brothers' house (next entrance)
,, „ (middle house)
„ „ (next chapel) .
Sisters' „ (next entrance)
„ ,, (middle house)
„ „ (next chapel) .
Two porters' lodges (£350 each)
Master's house, offices, stables, coach-house,
&c 
Conservatory adjoining ....

£7,000

0

0

1,000

0

0

100

0

0

1,200

0

0

1,300

0

0

1,800

0

0

1,600

0

0

2,200

0

0

1,800

0

0

1,500

0

0

1,700

0

0

700

0

0

8,050

0

0

50

0

0

£30,000 0 0

The premiums are paid once in every seven years, and the
total expense is as follows : —
Premiums  £136 7 0
Duty  270 0 0
£406 7 0

The Chapter clerk exhibits in Chapter once in a year, and
generally at Midsummer, an account of the rents received by

137
him. The general accounts are audited twice a year by the
senior Brother.
No marriages are celebrated at the present Hospital, but
the members of the chapter are sometimes buried in the vaults
under the present chapel, a privilege which should be dis
continued. No churchyard or burial ground is attached to
the Hospital. Baptisms and christenings are performed in
the chapel. Searches are occasionally made in the ancient
registers for entries relating to marriages, births, baptisms,
and burials, and also for wills, a fee of Is. being paid for the
search of each year, and one of 2s. 6d. for a certificate in
writing. Copies of wills are given upon reasonable payment.
The Brother in residence superintends the search, but his
emoluments from this source scarcely exceed 5s. a year. No
palls exist, and there is no resident bedes woman.
Under the orders of Lord Lyndhurst of 1829 the stipends
of the Master, Brothers, Sisters, and Receiver were increased,
and all the Masters, Brothers, and Sisters have since such
brders invariably received such increased stipends as well as
fines. In pursuance also of such orders, twenty bedesmen
and ten additional bedeswomen were appointed, and schools
and apprenticeships first established.
Under the warrant of Adelaide, the Queen Dowager, of
1849, additional scholars have been admitted, who at the
present time consist of thirty-three boys and eighteen girls.

LIST OF THE MASTER, BROTHERS, SISTERS, OFFICERS, AND SERVANTS, OF THE HOSPITAL.

Name of Office

Name of
Officer or Servant

Master .
Brother .
Brother .
Brother .
Sister

Clerk . I

SisterSister
Chapter Clerk
Receiver BailiffReader or Chaplain
Organist.
Messenger and first Under ¦
gardener.
Surveyor Sexton and Head-gar
dener.
Seoo nd TJnder-gardener .

The Hon. William
Ashley.
The Bev. George Towns-
end Hudson.
The Rev. John Hulbert
Glover.
The Eev. John Geo.
Henry Hill.
Martha Wilson .

Lucy Northey
Sarah Anne Hildyard

John Seeker .

The Rev. William Hayes
Fanny Green
Benjamin Harrington .

William Todd
James MacLean
Samuel King

When
appointed

April 1, 1839
Aug. 13, 1847
June 14, 1851
Jan. 14, 1856
Dec. 24, 1833

Dec. 31, 1835
July 16, 1860

Feb. 17, 1819

Jan. May

18141861

Christmas,1856

Jan.
June

18561857

How appointed

By Grant of Her Ma
jesty Adelaide, the
Queen Dowager.
Warrant of same .

By Warrant of Queen
Victoria.

By Warrant of Queen
Adelaide.
Same .
By Warrant of Queen
Victoria.
By Grants under Chap
ter Seal.

By Vote of Chapter .
By Warrant under
Chapter Seal.
By Vote of Chapter .

DittoDitto

Antecedents

Vice Chamberlain and Trea
surer to Her Majesty Queen
Adelaide.
Domestic Chaplain to same

Fellow of Clare Hall, Cam
bridge, and Son of the late
Librarian of Windsor Castle.
Son of the Rev. John Hill, M.A.
Lady in attendance on Queen
Adelaide.
Father a Canon of Windsor
Preceptress to the Royal

Solicitor, Windsor

Annual
Stipends

£ l. d.
1,200 0 0
300 0 0

300 0 0

200 0

0

200 •
200 0

00

100 0
2 0

0
0

150 0
40 0

00

51 12

0

59 0
65 0

00

Gratuities and other Emoluments

The Lodge, One-Third of the Fines upon
Leases, Proportion of Blackwall Rail
way Dividends.
A House and One- Sixth of One-Third of
the same Fines, and £25 a Year from
Compensation Fund.
Ditto.

Ditto.
A House and One-Sixth of One-Third of
the same Fines, and a Proportion of
same Dividends.
Ditto.Ditto.
The Dock Company pay the Costs of buy
ing Land for the Hospital out of the
Honey paid by them to the Hospital.
The Tenants pay the whole Expenses of
Leases, Counterparts, &c.

41 12 0

South Lodge. As Messenger £10, as undei
G-ardener £41. 12s. Total, £51. 125,, and
One Guinea from Compensation Fund. ,

Schoolmaster .
School mistress

James Strugnell
Harriet "West

July Mar.

1S52 1847

THE SCHOOLS.
By Vote of Chapter
Ditto

65 0 0
40 0 0

Apartments and Firing. As i
£10 in addition.
Apartments and Firing.'

139
Ducarel in Appendix XIV. gives a list and short account The Masters.
of all the Masters (forty in number) from Thomas de Lechlade,
1st Edward I., 1273, to Edmund Waller in 1780; to all of
whom, from 1273 down to the death of Henry VIIL in 1546,
with the exception of nine, clerical titles are annexed; but
Francis Mallet, in his report hereinafter mentioned, alleges
that all the Masters during the above period were priests.
The Masters, however, from the death of Henry VIIL down
to the present time, with the exception of the same Francis
Mallet (who was a priest) have been laymen. Many of them
have been peers of the realm, and a large majority, if not all
of them, persons of condition, and recently three vice-chamber
lains of the royal patrons have been appointed to the office,
viz., William Price, Esquire, in 1816, Colonel Disborowe in
1819, and the present Master in 1839. All the patents ap
pointing Masters which have been granted by the Crown are
enrolled in the Record Office, but not those granted by either
a Queen Dowager or a Queen Consort. The patent granting
the Mastership for life to Sir Francis Fleming, and bearing
date in the third year of Edward VI., was given by the King
with the advice of his Privy Council, and contains the following
non obstante or dispensing" clause, ' Licet ipse clericali ordine
minime insignitus sed forsan uxoratus sit vel fuerit.'
In 1554 Queen Mary appointed Francis Mallet, D.D., her
Almoner, to the Mastership, who surrendered his patent in
3 Elizabeth, 1561. In the State Paper Office ' is a petition
from Dr. Mallet to the Queen, in which he sets forth the
injury done to the Hospital under the Mastership of Sir
Thomas Seymour (Lord Admiral of England, whom the Queen
Dowager, Katherine Parr, married), and Sir Francis Fleming,
whom he describes as 'mere temporal men.' On Dr. Mallet
surrendering his patent, Thomas Wilson, Doctor of Laws,
and afterwards a knight, a layman, and secretary to Queen
Elizabeth, was by her appointed to the Mastership in 1561 ;
but he surrendered his patent, which did not contain a dis
pensing clause, and in 1563 obtained a new patent, in which
are inserted the following words : ' Licet ipse ' (the Master)
' laicus sit ac clericali ordine minime insignitus sed uxoratus
1 Patent Roll, 1 & 2 Philip and Mary, Part 6, an Office Copy »f
which has heen consulted.

140
et conjugatns ac etiam bigamus ac alias beneficiatus et non
sacerdos.' The dispensing clause in all the letters patent
that have been examined is, except in Wilson's case, that
adopted in Sir Francis Fleming's patent, and which in the
English patent runs thus, 'Although the Master' (naming
him) ' be not invested with priest's or any other sacred order.'
The present Master was originally a member of the Diplo
matic Service, which he gave up in 1830, on being appointed
by Queen Adelaide her Vice-Chamberlain and Treasurer, and
for the convenient exercise of such office occupied in the first
instance apartments in Windsor Castle, but upon Queen
Adelaide becoming the Queen Dowager, and residing at
Marlborough House, he removed from Windsor to a house in
the Stable Tard, St. James's, situate within the precincts of
the palace, and assigned to him by Her Majesty Queen
Victoria in 1838, in which he has lived ever since. In 1839,
upon the death of Sir Herbert Taylor, his immediate prede
cessor in the Mastership, he was appointed to that office by
Adelaide, the Queen Dowager, but permitted Lady Taylor,
Sir Herbert's widow, to occupy the Master's lodge (where
Sir Herbert had always resided himself, except when at
Windsor with King William IV.) until her death in 1858,
but since her death he has let the lodge, with the appur
tenances, for his own use and benefit. He states that as a close
proximity to Marlborough House was desirable for the ex
ercise of his offices of Vice- Chamberlain and Treasurer, such
a position was conveniently afforded by a residence in St.
James's Palace, and that his duties as Master at the Hospital
were as well performed whilst residing in the palace as if he
had resided at the lodge. He also states that upon his first
appointment to the Mastership he visited the Hospital four
times a week, the Brothers then being aged persons ; but
that since that period such visits have been less frequent, as
upon the Brothers in residence, who have been of late years
comparatively young, more particularly devolves the im-
mediate charge of the Hospital. The Master attends the
meetings of the Chapter, which are comparatively speaking
of rare occurrence, but seldom or ever the chapel in which
Divine service is performed on Sundays and Saints' days ; he
occasionally visits the schools, but these are considered to be

141
sufficiently superintended by the Brothers and Sisters in
residence. The emoluments of the present Master of the

Hospital are — ¦
From Stipend
„ Fines (average of 27

£
1,200

s. 0

d. 0

)>

years, see Table)
Blackwall dividends, &c.

228

6

4

v

(less Property Tax) .
Rent of Master's Lodge,

28

6

8

say £550, less paid for
rent of extra ground,
£7. 10s. .

542

10

0

£1,999

2

0

The amount of rent stated in this Report to be obtained
by those members of Chapter who let their houses is merely
speculative, as they were disinclined to give me any informa
tion on the subject, but the rent of the Master's lodge is
assessed above at anything but too high a rate, indeed I have
some reason for thinking that it would let, with its present
advantages of all rates and taxes, except Property Tax, all
reparation and all gardening, being paid out of the Hospital
funds for £600 or £700 a year. In short the present Master
receives or might receive, if he chose, about £2,000 a year
from the charity.
Queen Eleanor's Charter (1273) provided that when in The Brothers
future times there should be an increase in the possessions of an<i Sisters.
the Hospital, the number of chaplains, poor men, clerks, lay
men, and women should be augmented according to the means
of the Hospital ; and it appears from the Survey of 37 Henry
VIIL (1544) that there were at that time four Brothers and
three Sisters, but it has already been shown (page 28) that in
1635 there were only three Brothers and three Sisters.
Ducarel, in Appendix XV., page 90, gives the names of 20
Brothers (all of whom are styled clerks) between the years

142
1628 and 1773, and the names of 22 Sisters between the
years 1638 and 1777, but how many of each were members
of the Hospital at the same time does not appear. Three
Brothers and three Sisters was no doubt the usual number,
and the 10th Order of Lord Somers in 1698 directed, in ac
cordance with Queen Eleanor's Charter, that the number
(whatever it then was) might under certain circumstances be
increased, first by an additional Brother, and then by an
additional Sister, provisions virtually overruled by the orders
of Lord Lyndhurst in 1829.
The senior Brother was appointed to the Hospital in 1847,
and in 1849 became Rector of Harthill, Worksop, a living
worth about £620 a year, and in the gift of a patron other than
the Chapter, none of whose benefices he has ever held. He, or
some member of his family, occupies during the entire year the
house assigned to him at St. Katharine's (which he never lets),
and he resides there himself during his term of residence.
The second Brother was appointed to the Hospital in
1854, and in 1856 presented by the Chapter to the perpetual
curacy at Kingsthorpe, belonging to the Hospital, and worth
£830 a year gross and £700 net. He occupies the house
assigned to him at St. Katharine's, when in residence, but
has occasionally let the same when not in residence.
The junior Brother, upon being appointed to the Hospital
in 1856, resided in the house assigned to him until the end of
1863, when he became British Vice-Consular Chaplain at
Dieppe, since which period he has let the same, and taken
lodgings in the vicinity of the Hospital, for the performance
of the duties incident to residence. He states, however, that
arrangements have recently been made with his tenant, which
will enable him to occupy rooms in the house during his
period of residence.
The emoluments of a Brother are : —
From Stipend .......
„ Fines (average of 27 years, see Table)
„ Compensation for fees (less Property Tax)
„ Blackwall Dividends (less Property Tax) .
If house let, say for (rates, &c. being paid by the
Hospital as in the Master's case)

£

s.

d.

300

0

0

76

2

1

24

3 10

4 14

4

405

0

3

100

0

0

505

0

3

143
The senior Sister, who was appointed to the Hospital in Sisters.
1833, has never resided in the house assigned to her at St.
Katharine's, but lets the same, her means, it is said, being
insufficient to meet the expense of personal occupation.
The second Sister, who was appointed to the Hospital in
1835, resides in the house assigned to her at St. Katharine's,
which she never lets.
The junior Sister, who was appointed to the Hospital in
1860, has never resided in but always let the house assigned
to her at St. Katharine's, her duties at court having hitherto
required her constant attendance there, but these having
ceased, she has virtually, if not actually, entered upon
residence. The emoluments of a Sister are : —
From stipend 
„ Fines (average of 27 years, see Table)
„ Blackwall Dividends (less Property Tax)
If house let, say for (rates, &c. being paid by the
Hospital, as in the Master's case)

The Chapter clerk, who was appointed in 1819, has at his The Chapter
disposal apartments adjoining the Chapter house, in which he Clerk.
formerly resided, but now only occasionally occupies, as he
lives at Windsor. When a vacancy occurs in the office I
recommend the appointment of a London solicitor, and then
the apartments in question can be assigned to some other
person, who either now is or hereafter may become connected
with the Hospital, ex. gra., the schoolmaster. The Chapter
clerk, whose immediate predecessors in the office were his
father and grandfather, gave in 1819, for the performance of
Ms duties, a bond for either £300 or £400, with two sureties ;
but this instrument, although it is said to exist, could not be
found, and the sureties thereto have long since died.
The Reader or Chaplain appointed in 1844 is an assistant The Eeader
master at King's College, London, and merely reads prayers or Chaplain.
in the morning and afternoon on Sundays, whilst the duty on
Saints' days which occur during the rest of the week is
entirely performed by the Brother in residence.

£ s.
200 0
76 2
. . 4 14

d. 0 1
0

280 16

7

90 0

0

£370 16

7

144

The Organist.

The Messen
ger, &c.

The Surveyor.

The Sexton,
Verger, and
Head-gardener.

The second
Under-gar-dener.

The School
master.

The School
mistress.

The organist, appointed in 1861, receives a salary of £40
a year, for which she plays in the chapel on Sundays, but
not on Saints' days ; she also attends at the Hospital twice
a week to teach the school-children, both boys and girls, to
sing. Benjamin Harrington occupies the south lodge rent free,
and receives, as messenger, £10 a year, one guinea out of the
Compensation Fund, and as under- gardener, £41 12s. a year,
being after the rate of 16s. a week.
William Todd acts as surveyor of the Master's lodge and
Hospital buildings. His annual stipend was increased from
£30 in 1858 to £40 in 1860, and to £50 in 1862.
James Maclean, who as sexton, verger, and head-gardener,
lives in the North Lodge, rent free, and receives as sexton
£42 a year (no interments ever take place at the Hospital),
and as head gardener £23 a year, together with a stipend of
£10 a year as a poor bedesman ; a matter hereinafter more
particularly discussed.
Samuel King, the second under-gardener, occupies the
rooms over the stables (which are not used at present by the
Brothers and Sisters) rent free, and receives a salary of 16s.
per week, or £41 12s. a year.
James Strugnell, the master (not certificated), is un
married, resides on the school premises rent free, with an
allowance for coals, and receives, in addition to his annual
salary of £65, a stipend of £10 a year as a poor bedesman ;
a matter hereinafter more particularly mentioned.
Harriet West, the schoolmistress (not certificated), is un
married, resides on the school premises rent free, with an
allowance for coals, and receives a salary of £40 a year.
There are 20 bedeswomen, 10 of whom were first appointed
under Queen Eleanor's Charter of 1273, and the other 10
under the order made by Lord Lyndhurst in 1829.
There are 20 bedesmen, all of whom were first appointed
by the last-mentioned order.
The Master keeps a list of all applicants for vacancies in
either list (of which there have been 17 in 20 years), makes
inquiries into their circumstances, and then exercises hjs
discretion in the appointment, the condition of which is com
parative rather than absolute poverty.

145

The 10 original bedeswomen, like the Chapter, are sup
posed to have been appointed in ancient times by the patron ;
but of late years, and invariably since the order of 1829, their
places conferring an annual stipend of £10 each, have been
and still are in the gift of the Master.
However, as Queen Philippa's Ordinances provide that in
case of incontinence or other misbehaviour it shall be lawful
for the Master, with the consent of the Brothers and Sisters,
to remove (amovere) the delinquent bedeswoman, and admit
(admittere) another poor woman in her place, it might per
haps be contended, that as the power to remove was vested
in the Master, with the consent of the other Members of the
Chapter, the word (admittere) might possibly mean to nomi
nate and appoint, with a view to admission ; but in a Patent
of 1 Henry VIIL, headed ' de nominatione sororis in Hospi
tale,' and addressed to the Master of the Hospital, the King
says, ' Nbveritis quod nos Margeriam Pole ad sedem atque
locum vice Elense Litley jam vacantem vobis nominamus man-
dantes quatenus dictam Margeriam ad locum ilium vacantem
recipiatis et admittatis.'

LIST OP BEDESWOMEN.

Names of
Bedeswomen

1. Margaret Kerridge .
; 2. Elisabeth Stewart .
8. Ann Brown .
i. Elizabeth Charlotte
i Pearl .
6. Elizabeth Croaks .
6. Margaret Hannah
I tee .
. 7. AnnBeynett .
8. Mary Ann Gilyan .
9. Margaret Gaynan .
[ 10. Harriet Whatkins .
> 11. Ann Maria West-
brook. .
12. Louisa Laurent ',
'[13. Ami Maria Charrise
'': }*¦ Caroline Lovejo? .
i ]}'¦ J?™ MacPherson .
' 16. Frances Bard .
. IJ. Elizabeth Wilslier .
! 18. Mary Goodwin
»»• MaryCharlotteWard
•«• Ann Goodwin .

When
appointed

July 13, 1822
1829
1829
June 24, 1836
May 30, 18381842
Jan. 17, 1842
Oct. 27, 1846
Mar. 25,1847
June 1, 1849
Oct. 6, 1849
Mar. 6, 1852
July 20,1852
Oct. 6, 1863
Feb. 8,1855
Dec. 20, 1858
April 10, 1859
Jan. 2, 1861
Mar. 20, 1860
Aug. 21

By whom
appointed

Antecedents, and
former Place of Residence

Single Woman, Hampstead
Single Woman, St. Katha
rine's
Servant, Duke Street, Gros-
venor Square
Muaic Mistress, Windsor .
Single Woman, Kensing
ton
Widow, Brinnington .
Single Woman. Hampton
Court Palace
Single Woman, HuttOn,
Somerset
Single Woman, St. James'
Single Woman, Bath .
Servant, Drayton, Hants .
Single Woman, Cornbury,
Oxon
Single Woman, Radbourne,
Derby
Widow, Quebec Street
Single Woman, Pimlico
Single Woman, Savile Row
Widow, Chelsea Hospital .
Single Woman, Ealing
Widow .
Single Woman, Ealing

Stipend.

10 0 0

10 0 0

10 0 0

10 0 0

10 0 0

10 0 0

10 0 0

10 0 0

10 0 0

10 0 0

10 0 0

10 0 0

10 0 0

10' 0 0

10 0 0

10 0 0

10 0 0

10 0 0

10 0 0

10 0 0

Gratuity
and Emoluments

And £16. Us. a
Year Compen
sation as Resi
dent Bedes
woman for Loss
of Pall Fees

146
As the first five bedeswomen upon the list were appointed
by the late Master, Sir Herbert Taylor, my inquiries were
confined to the remaining 15, appointed by the present
Master, with a view of ascertaining whether they were poor
persons within the meaning of the Order of 1829. I find
that 14 out of these 15 bedeswomen were at the time of their
appointment either worn-out governesses or old servants past
labour, and all comparatively if not positively poor, and that
the remaining bedeswoman (No. 7 on the list), who is said
to be in narrow circumstances, considering her station in
life (she was the sister of a general officer now deceased),
resides in apartments assigned to her in Hampton Court
Palace, and receives, in addition to the stipend of £10 a year
as an ordinary bedeswoman, the annual sum of £16 15s. as
compensation, payable to the resident bedeswoman at St.
Katharine's, for the loss of the pall fees.
On October 17, 1825, Mary Corner was the resident
bedeswoman at the ancient Hospital, and by virtue of the
arrangement made at that period by the Chapter received
during her life £16 15s. a year from the Compensation Fund,.
but since her death the annuity has been paid to other bedes
women. It may, however, be fairly contended that upon the
death of Mary Corner this annuity of £16 15s. ought either
to have fallen into the residue, precisely in the same way as
that of £60 payable to the chapel clerk fell upon the death
of its first recipient and the extinction of the office, or to
have been distributed equally amongst all the bedeswomen,
regard being had to the particular wording of the agreement
of October 17, 1825, and of the schedule thereto attached.
Similar inquiries, and upon a similar principle to those
instituted with respect to the bedeswomen, were made by me
with respect to the 20 bedesmen, 16 of whom are indebted
for their appointments to the present Master. These persons,
with the exception of five, whose cases are next mentioned,
consist of servants and decayed tradespeople.

147

LIST OF BEDESMEN.

Names of Bedesmen

When
appointed

How
appointed

Antecedents and former
Place of Residence

Stipend

Gratuity and
Emoluments

1. John Sparrow .
2. William Tattersall .
3. William Hawkins .
I, Vincent Paine .
5. Henry Baylis .
6. John Pear
7. Bobert Thome
8. John Heppell .
9. George Nash .
10. James Pincham
11. George. Strugnell ,
12. Thomas Wilsher
13. James Late
14. Jonathan Lawrence .
15. James MacLean
16. Richard Grafton .
17. William Norman .
18. George Gerrard
19. James Bowles .
20. James Pitt

.Nov. 25, 1829
Nov. 25,1829
Apr. 23, 1833
May 19, 1838
Apr. 2,1846
Dec 2,1847
Dec. 29,1847
Jan. 1852
Aug. 14, 1852
Aug. 1854
Jan. 25, 1855
Aug. 4,1857
May 10,1861
Oct. 25, 1861
Nov. 30, 1861
July 20, 1862
Oct. 30.1S62
Deo. 6,1862
Dec. 2,1863 1864

By Warrant
By Warrant
Ditto

Servant, St. Katharine's .
Law Writer, St. Luke's
Coachman, St. James'
Servant, St. Katharine's .
Small Tenant Parmer,
Do wick.
Servant, Somers Town
Gardener, St. Katharine's .
Servant, St. James' .
Tradesman, Caledonian Road
Surveyor, St. James' .
Schoolmaster, St.Katharine's
Servant, St. Katharine's .
Waiter, Pimlico .
Messenger, Pimliao .
Gardener, St. Katharine's .
Gardener, St. Katharine's .
Fruit Stall Keeper,Shoe Lane
Past Work, Clifton .
BeU Ringer, Oxford Street .
Servant, Rutland Gate

£ s. d.
10 0 0
10 0 0
10 0 0
10 0 0
10 0 0
10 0 0
0 0
0 0
0

1010101010
10 0
10 0

10 10
10 0
10 0

It having been ascertained by the Master, prior to the
inquiry before me, that bedesman No. 5, and since the inquiry
that bedesmen No. 9 and 10, were in better circumstances
and able to support themselves, they have been removed by
him from the list as from July 1, 1865.
Bedesman No. 11, the schoolmaster of St. Katharine's,
who is unmarried, receives a salary of £65 a year from the
Chapter, but is provided with apartments and firing gratis,
whilst bedesman No. 15, the sexton and head-gardener at the
Hospital, with stipends amounting in the whole to £65 a year,
occupies the south lodge rent free, and has two of his sons
clothed and educated gratis at the school ; but inasmuch as
these persons are anything but comparatively poor for their
way of life, and assuming even that either the one or the other
is insufficiently remunerated (which most certainly may be well
doubted as regards the latter), the funds of the Hospital pro
perly chargeable with such payments, and not those dedicated
exclusively to the positive or comparatively poor, ought to
supply the deficiency. It is alleged, however, that the practice
is anything but new, it having been adopted by Sir Herbert
Taylor in the cases of a former schoolmaster and head
gardener, but the present Master of the Hospital now states
that since the inquiry he has removed the schoolmaster from
the list of bedesmen, as from July 1, 1865, and that the
l2

148

The Schools.

The Boys'
School.

Chapter intend to increase his salary by £20 a year, to be
defrayed out of the school fund.
The children, both boys and girls, are appointed by the
Chapter, each member nominating in turn, but the Master
has two nominations, and the other members only one each.
There are about ten or twelve applications for each vacancy,
when it occurs ; but the candidates for admission (which takes
place between the ages of seven and eight) are examined by
a Brother, and the best selected. All the children are clothed
as well as educated at the expense of the Chapter. The
clothing of the boys consists in part of a dark blue suit (in
cluding a cape) with brass buttons, and a cap of the same
colour, with a red band, and that of the girls of a brown
gown, a white straw bonnet, with cherry-coloured ribbons,
and a white cap. The attire, which is of excellent quality,
although less conspicuous than that so generally adopted in
charity schools, still indicates an eleemosynary rather than a
domestic origin. At both schools the hours of attendance are
from nine to twelve in the morning, and from two to four in
the afternoon, with a whole holiday on Saturday. The vaca
tions consist of five weeks at Midsummer, two weeks at
Christmas, and a few days at Easter. Morning and evening
prayers are read by the Master and Mistress in their respec
tive schools, and they, together with the children under their
respective care, attend on the Sunday morning and afternoon
service at the chapel of the Hospital, where seats are reserved
for their particular use. The office of chapel clerk having
been abolished, the six senior boys leave the school and make
the responses in chapel on Saints' days.
The Chapter are perfectly satisfied with the condition of
the boys' school, and more particularly with regard to the
results obtained from the system of religious teaching and
moral training adopted by the Master.
In this school there are three classes, viz. —
1st class with  12
2nd „ „  10
3rd „ „ . .1st division 1
2nd division J

11

Total . 33 boys

149
who are the sons of clerks, tradespeople, artificers, and
servants. The instruction embraces reading, writing, arithmetic,
book and account keeping, mensuration, history, grammar,
the elements of mathematics, drawing, and vocal music ; the
Church Catechism is taught, the Bible read, and the prin
ciples and duties of the Church of England inculcated. The
Brother in residence, assisted by the chaplain, examines the
boys once in every half year, and prizes are distributed to the
most meritorious.
The boys, upon their superannuation at the age of fourteen, Apprentice-
are apprenticed by the Chapter at premiums varying from ^ "
£15 to £25, and when their articles have expired receive a
gratuity of £5 each upon producing a certificate of good con
duct during service.
Harriet West, the mistress of the girls' school, is about The Girls'
sixty-five years of age, but her retirement is contemplated, as 00 '
the girls are not instructed, except in needlework, as well as
the Chapter either wish or have a right to expect.
The school is divided into two classes, viz. —
1st class  8
2nd „  10

Total . 18 girls
who are in the same position in life as the boys.
The instruction embraces reading, writing, arithmetic,
English grammar, geography, and needlework. The religious
teaching is the same as that of the boys. Each girl upon
superannuation at the age of sixteen, receives from the Chapter
£4 worth of clothes, as an outfit for domestic service, into Outfit?
which the girls generally enter, and upon attaining the age
of twenty-one a gratuity of £5, but subject to the production
of testimonials of good conduct from her last place.
There have been at the same time as many as thirty- six
boys and eighteen girls in the school, but a reduction has
lately been made in their number on the ground of economy.

150
Summary of Summary of the present Gross Annual Income of
tne present x
and future • j;he Charity.
trross Annual J
Income of the
Charifcy- Rents 
Dividends .....
Fines (on 27 years' average, see
Table) ......
Chapel receipts (Amount in 1863)

£ s.

d.

4,404 10

0

1,888 8

3

684 19

0

119 7

n

7,097 4 10J

Summary of the supposed future Gross Annual
Income of the Charity.
Rents (rack without fines)
Dividends (as at present) .
Chapel receipts (as at present) .
If to this is added the sum of
£3,905 in respect of the house
property Nos. 1 and 2 (see
Schedule and Observations on
the Hospital Estates) . . 3,905 0 0

£ s.
8,920 0
1,818 8
119 7

d.
03 n

10,927 15

m

14,832 15 104

But, however this may be, it is quite clear that if the
system of granting leases on fines is abolished, and a better
and more provident management introduced, a great improve
ment in the net annual income of the charity must necessarily
result.

Schedule of ^Receipts, including Balances in Hand and Casual Moneys, for Six Years (1858 to
1863' inclusive), together with Average.

!' -

1858

1859

1860

1861

1862

1863

Average for
the fc^x
Years

fi Balance in hand from pre-
jf ceding Tear
Fines ....
Dividends on Stock .
Quit-rents and Manorial
E Fronts.
Sale of Timber
Allowance on Insurance
*' Cash returned, paid in
error ....
From Pew Bents .
Miscellaneous

£ s. d.
608 18 10
1,842 0 5
3 6 0
12 5 0
3 3 0

£ s. d.
248 16 104
4,282 11 1
1,850 13 2
14 6 2
0 2 6

£ s. <f.
806 17 94
4,171 11 6
,799 9 '5
6 13 8
4 10 0

£ s. d.
623 16 3
4,232 19 7
1,700 JO 0
1,786 12 11
8 10 4
18 4 6
33 0 0
23 2 0

£ .!. d.
1,986 5 8
4,225 5 1
1,760 0 '2
24 6 9
6 17 0

£ J. d.
1,281 10 54
4,253 14 9
1,066 3 0
1,767 12 8
12 2 9
22 16 0

£ s. d.
926 0 US
4,240 2 IIJ
461 2 2
1,800 18 li
11 10 9J
6 19 10
3 16 0
0 10 6
5 10 0
3 17 0

6,744 9 0

6,396 8 9J

6,789 2 34

8,425 15 7

8,002 14 8

8,403 19 74

7,460 8 3i

consequently the Average Receipts for the Sis Years, omitting the average ' Balances in hand '
(£926. 0s. llfci) and Casual Moneys, viz., 'Allowance on Premiums' (£3. 16s.) and 'Error'
(10s. 6d.), amount to £6,530. 0s. Wd.
Observations on the Seceipts.
The rents are paid by the tenants, and the dividends Observations
received less property tax, a return of which is never ob- 5? th;e
tained. This omission has in fact deprived the Chapter of funds
which if realised would long ago have paid off the debt of
£1,750 now owing by them to their clerk, and at the same
time left a considerable surplus at the disposal of the Hospital.
The item of £33 for pew rents appears to have found its
way into the accounts of 1861 as a repayment of part of the
costs incurred by the Chapter in warming the chapel ; how
ever, the chapel accounts kept by the reader, which usually
include the pew rents, have, as a general rule, no connexion
with, but are entirely distinct from, the general accounts kept
by the Chapter clerk.
Schedule of Expenditure, including Balance in Hand, for Six Years (1858 to 1863'inclusive),
together with Averages.

1858

1859

1860

1861

1862

1863

Average for the
Six Years

Waiter :
Fines.Proportion of Blackwall Hail-
way Dividends .
Brothers:
4 Stipend .
_ Knes .
' Compensation for Fees '.
ftoportdon of Blackwall Rail
way Dividends . ..

& s. d.
1,175 0 0
26 2 3
881 5 0
'73 8 '6
13 1 2

£ s. d.
1,155 0 0
18 19 8
866 5 0
'72 8 '9
9 9 10

£ . s. d.
1,162 10 0
18 3 5
871 17 6
'72 13 3
9 19

£ s. d.
1,155 0 0
544 6 6
32 4 9
866 5 0
272 3 3
72 4 0
16 2 5

£ s. d.
1,155 0 0
32 5 0
866 5 0
'72 4 '0
16 2 0

£ s. d.
1,162 10 0
345 0 0
42 1 3
871 17 6
172 10 0
72 16 0
21 0 8

£ s. d.
1,160 16 8
148 4 5
28 6 04
870 12 6
74 2 24
72 11 7
14 3 04

. Hie 1864\&ccounts were not made up at the time of the inquiry, hence their not being included in this Schedule.

Schedule op Exfendituue-

—continued.

Average
1858
1859
I860
1861
1862
1863
for the •
Six. Years
Sisters :
£ s. d.
£ i. d.
£ s. d.
£ 3.
d.
£ s.
d.
£ s. d.
£ «. A 1
Stipend 
587 10 0
577 10 0
581 5 0
577 11
0
577 10
0
681 5 0
680 8 6
Fines 
272 3
3
• 172 10 0
74 2 2}
Proportion of Blackwall Rail
1
way Dividends .
13 1 1
9 9 10
9 18
16 2
4
16 2
6
21 0 7
14 3 0'1
Bedesmen, Stipends . . .
200 0 0
200 0 0
200 0 0
200 0
0
200 0
0
200 0 0
200 0 0 1
Bedeswomen :
200 0 0
200 0 0
200 0 0
200 0
0
200 0
0
200 0 0
200 0 0 |
Resident, Compensation .
Chapel :
Reader or Chaplain, Stipend .
16 15 0
16 15 0
16 15 0
16 16
0
16 15
0
16 15 0
16 16 0 '
97 10 0
96 5 0
96 17 6
96 5
0
96 5
0
96 17 6
" n
96 13 4 '•
Organist 
40 0 0
40 0 0
43 0 0
40 0
0
40 0
0
40 0 0
40 10 0 |
42 0 0
42 0 0
42 0 0
42 0
0
42 0
0
42 0 0
42 0 0
Organ-tuning ....
10 10 0
10 10 0
10 10 0
10 10
0
10 10
0
10 10 0
10 10 0 1
81 5 0
25 0 0
17 14 2 ,
Clockywinding and repairs
2 12 6
16 2 0
2 2 0
2 2
'0
2 2
0
'220
4 10 6 ¦
Schools :
Master, Stipend
75 0 0
75 0 0
75 0 0
75 0
0
75 0
0
75 0 0
75 0 0
Mistress, Stipend . . .
40 0 0
40 0 0
40 0 0
40 0
0
40 0
0
40 0 0
40 0 0 ,
Books, Stationery, Materials
\
for Work, Rewards, and
petty Expenses .
80 3 0
67 4 9
87 7 04
83 7
6
82 16
5
76 6 10
79 10 9 I
Tflpthing, Boys and Girls .
217 5 6
161 13, 3
269 9 8
208 0
6
168 5 11
257 8 4
213 13 104
Apprenticing ....
70 0 0
60 0 0
95 0 0
97 0
0
40 0
0
40 0 0
67 0 0
Rewards for goed conduct in
20 16 8 1
Service ....
15 0 0
15 0 0
30 0 0
25 0
0
30 0
0
10 0 0
Pensions :
20 0 0 h
Robert Thorn, disabled Sexton
20 0 0
20 0 0
20 0 0
20 0
0
20 0
0
20 0 0
Ann Cram, Widow of Sexton .
20 0 0
20 0 0
20 0 0
20 0
0
20 0
0
20 0 0
20 0 0 ,
1 13 4
Gratuity, Widow of Organist
10 0 0
.
Donations and Subscriptions :
1
Restoration of Kingsthorpe
Chancel ....
50 0 0
8 6 8,
8 6 8
National School at Bythorn .
,
, .
50 0 '0
,
,
.
.
National School at Rainham .
15 0 0
,
2 10 0
Northern Dispensary
3 3 'o
'330
6 6 0
' 3 3
'0
3 3
'0
3 3 0
8 13 6
Sellinge School and Clothing
10 10 0 "
Club . . .
10 10 0
10 10 0
10 10 0
10 10
0
10 10
0
10 10 0
St.Peter's,Northampton,School
5 0 0
5 0 0
5 0 0
5 0
0
5 0
0
5 0 0
6 0 0|
Bythorne School and Clothing
Club 
10 0 0
10 b 0
10 0 0
10 0
0
10 0
0
10 0 0
10 0 0
Sporle School ....
5 5 0
5 5 0
5 5 0
5 5
0
5 5
0
5 5 0
5 5 0
Kingsthorpe School .
10 0
0
10 0 0
3 6 8
Chapter Bonds, Interest
'85 6 's
84 4 6.
'84 15 '5
83 0
'9
84 4
6
84 19 0
84 8 4}
¦Officers :
Chapter Clerk and Receiver,
96 13 4il
Stipend ....
97 10 0
96 5 0
96 17 6
96 5
0
96 5
0
96 17 6
Chapter, Compensation for Seal
110
1 1 0
110
1 1
0
1 1
0
110
1 1 0
2 0 0
2 0 0
2 0 0
2 0
0
2 0
0
2 0 0
2 0 0
2 0 0
2 0 0
2 0 0
10 0
Surveyor, Stipend .
30 0 0
30 0 0
40 0 0
'40 0
'0
'50 0
'0
50 0 '0
40 0 0 1
Chapter Messenger, Stipend .
10 0 0
10 9 0
10 0 0
10 0
0
10 0
0
10 0 0
10 0 0
Chapter Messenger, Compensa-
in
110
110
110
1 1
0
1 1
0
110
110
Head Gardener ....
23 0 0
23 0 0
23 0 0
23 0
0
23 0
0
23 0 0
23 0 Oi,
41 12 0 "
Under Gardener
41 12 0
41 12 0
41 12 0
41 12
0
41 12
0
41 12 0
Second Gardener
41 12 0
41 12 0
41 12 0
41 12
0
41 12
0
41 12 0
41 12 0
Hospital Buildings (including
Master's Lodge), Charges
¦ij
on, &c. :
Taxes on Hospital, Schools, &c.
19 1 11
12 1 6
20 6 11
30 2
7
34 5
71
20 7 6
22 14 4»
Rates on Hospital, Schools, &c.
240 9 8
251 15 2
244 3 4
245 8
7
25-1 10 10"
259 6 0
249 811
Gas 
9 8 0
4 15 0
14 7 9
29 19
0
10 17
9
42 6 9
18 12 ih
Insurance, Hospital Buildings
„
271 2
6
45 3 9
Repairs of Hospital Buildings,
$
488 19 8
483 9 7
975 0 2
386 0 10
1,246 13
8
611 7 9
698 11 113
Garden Expenses
Estates? Expenses of :
Repairs and new Buildings
59 12 4
11 12 9
31 4 9
26 16
9
32 3
2
20 10 9
30 6 9 St
969 2 11
332 3 24
239 4 fj
194 16
4
345 13
6
270 2 9
391 17 3«i
55 19 9
8 8 3
8 8 3
8 8
3
8 8
3
85 2 3
29 2 6,
Rates and Taxes allowed to
I
Tenants
222 8 10J
228 0 84
103 12 94
99 6
2
102 2
6
102 2 0
142 18 10
Journeys to visit Estates .
26 7 3
9 5 9
24 5 10
12 16
2
9 8
7
11 15 9
15 13 21!;
Surveys and Valuations on
1
Renewals, &c. .
116 17 6
8 12 6
48 17 9
30 3
0
189 1
0
24 14 6
69 14 4)
Receipt Stamps and Postage .
2 0 0
2 0 0
2 0 0
2 0
0
2 0
0
2 0 0
2 0 0
Balance in hand at End of Year .
248 16 104
806 17 9^
623 16 3
1,986 5
8
1,281 10
64
1,898 13 54
1,141 0 1
Total ....
6,744 9 0
6,396 8 94
6,789 2 3J
.8,425 15
7
8,002 14
8i
8,403 19 74
7,460 8 ii
153
Summary of Expenditure, including Balances in Hand, derived
from the above Six Years' averages.

Master 

£1,337 7 li

Three Brothers 

1,031 9 4

Three Sisters .....

668 13 81

Bedesmen . ....

200 0 0
Bedeswomen .....
216 15 0
Chapel1 
211 17 11
Schools (including £213 13s. 10%d.
for clothing) . . . £408 4
71
Apprenticing ... 67 0
0
Rewards for good service . 20 16
8
496 1 3i
41 13 4
Pensions, &e. .....
Donations and Subscriptions
,
56 18 6
Chapter Bonds, interest
84 8 4f
Officers ......
,
257 19 4
Hospital Buildings (including Master's Lodge,
&c.) Charges on .
.
1,064 18 Of
Estates, Expenses of
.
651 6 2
Balances in Hand ....
'
1,141 0 1
£7,460 8 21
Excluding the balances the average is £6,319 8 li.
Observations on the Expenditure.
Payments to Members of Chapter, &c. — The Master, Observations
Brothers, Sisters, Chapter Clerk and Reader, are paid their Expenditure.
stipend, &c, not in full, but less income tax, out of the
receipts. Pensioners and Gratuity. — Ann Cram, the sexton's widow,
now 70 years of age, has enjoyed a pension of £20 a year
since 1825, the grant of which, like the gratuity of £10 a
year to the widow of a deceased organist, is open to the
objection of not having the recommendation of personal
service. Donations and Subscriptions. — These payments, being
1 Cost of Chapel— From Charity Receipts . £211 17 11
„ Chapel Receipts 1863 119 7 7$
 331 5 6i
154
incident to the Hospital property, and reasonable in amount,
may be well allowed.
Chapter Bonds, Interest. — As already observed, every
endeavour should be made to liquidate a debt which was
contracted 36 years ago.
The Surveyor's Stipend. — This stipend, which has varied
from £30 to £50 a year, is paid for superintending the
smaller but not the larger repairs done to the. Hospital and
Master's lodge, which are entrusted to other persons. All the
painting, decorating, ironmongery, and carpenter's work
required to be done either at the Hospital or the Master's
lodge is referred to the surveyor by the members of the
Chapter or their tenants ; but I think that if such references
were less frequent than they are, the services of this officer
might be obtained at a less cost, and the requisitions so
made would at the same time meet with sufficient attention.
The surveyor makes extra charges for books, papers, journeys
and plans, which in 1860 amounted to £48. 17s. 9d.
Taxes, Bates,. Gas, and. Insurance on the Hospital. — The
Hospital premises are. rated to the poor as follows; viz., the
Master's lodge at £426, the Brothers' houses on an average at
£90 each, those of the Sisters on an average at £86 each, the
School at £50, and the Chapter-house apartments at £46.
The above charges which fall upon the Chapter funds, amount
in the aggregate to the sum of £335. 19s. 4<\d. a year.
Repairs, of Hospital Buildings, including the Master's
Lodge. — Although the enormous sums expended upon these
premises in reparation, &c, during the 32 years which expired
first after their erection have already been shown, still it may
be as well to recapitulate the items, as a similar expenditure,
and very much after the same rate, still continues.
Prom 1826 to 1857 (both inclusive) the £ s. d.
average annual outlay was . . . 1,002 15 0
For the ten years ending with 1857 such .
average outlay was  681 11 2
Eor the six years ending with 1863 such
average outlay was  698 11 0£
In short, nearly £700 a year, exclusive of the stipend and
charges of the Hospital surveyor, is even now thus spent.
Garden Expenses. — These, including the wages of three

155
gardeners, amount in the aggregate to the sum of £136. 10s. 9d.
a year. At the inquiry, one of the Brothers stated that
two-thirds of these expenses were incurred in respect of the
Master's lodge, and one-third in respect of the Hospital, but the
surveyor apportioned such expenses equally between the lodge
and the Hospital ; however, so far as I can judge from
personal observation, the former appears to be the better
6pinion. Onerous as all these payments are under any
circumstances, still they become more particularly open to
objection when made on behalf of those members of Chapter
who let their houses for their own benefit, and not for that of
the Hospital, and at the same time live themselves elsewhere.
Balances m hand. — I recommend so much as can con
veniently be spared of the £1,898. 13s. 5^d., the balance in
the hands of the Chapter clerk at the end of 1863, and which
earns no interest, at least for the Hospital, to be applied in
part liquidation of ->ihe debt of £1,750 owing by the Chapter
to their clerk, which bears interest at £5 per cent.
The financial arrangements adopted at the Hospital are
anything but convenient, for the fines are passed to one
account kept at a banker's in the name of the Chapter, and
the rest of the income to the private account of the Chapter
clerk, kept in his own name at his own banker's ; and it
appears to me that the amalgamation of the fine with the
general account, and the opening of one account at a banker's
in the name of the Chapter, to which all moneys belonging to
the Hospital should be paid by the receiver, and drawn upon
by the Chapter, will work a considerable improvement. At
the same time I recommend the employment of greater care
and accuracy in keeping the accounts and in rendering to this
office those required under the Charitable Trusts Acts, for the
inquiry disclosed the existence of many serious discrepancies
between the last-mentioned accounts and those detailed by
me in the preceding schedules, and now admitted by the
Chapter clerk in writing to be correct.
[The remaining three pages of the Report are composed of
various suggestions made to Mr. Skirrow as to the future of
the Hospital, which it is not necessary to repeat.]

EXTRACTS
FKOM THE
REPORT OP THE ROYAL COMMISSION APPOINTED
TO INQUIRE INTO SEVERAL MATTERS RE
LATIVE TO THE ROYAL HOSPITAL OP ST.
KATHARINE NEAR THE TOWER AND NOW
SITUATE IN REGENT'S PARK, 1871.

From Page 9, Sec. 14, to End.
XIV. In or about the year 1825 the St. Katharine's Dock
Company, under the powers of their Act of Parliament, took
possession of the site of the Hospital near the Tower, and the
church and other buildings of the Hospital were removed to
their present site in the Regent's Park. In consequence of
this removal and the great increase of the revenues of the
Hospital arising from the compensation and purchase money
paid by the Dock Company, it became necessary to have a
new scheme for the application of such revenue, and some
extension of or addition to the objects of the endowment.
XV. Por this purpose a scheme was suggested to Lord
Eldon, the then Lord Chancellor, which, having been subse
quently approved by his immediate successor, Lord Lyndhurst,
was, with some modifications, carried into effect by some
rules and orders made on November 4, 1829. These rules
are entitled, ' Rules and Orders for the future Application of
the Revenues of the Hospital, and for the Government of the
same,' and they direct that the annual sum to be derived from
the purchase moneys received from the Dock Company and
the other revenues of the charity should be applied as
follows : —
lstly. Por increasing the stipends of the Brothers of the
said Hospital to the yearly sum of £300 each.

157
2ndly. Por increasing the present stipends of the Sisters
to the yearly sum of £200 each.
3rdly. Por increasing the present stipend of the Receiver
of the Hospital £100 a year.
4thly. Towards the support and maintenance of ten addi
tional bedeswomen with the like allowance which is now
made to the poor women belonging to the Hospital.
5thly. Towards the support and maintenance of twenty
poor bedesmen with the annual sum of £10 each ; such bedes
men and bedeswomen to be appointed by the Master from
such poor persons as he shall think fit, provided that the two
situations of bedesman and bedeswoman shall on no account
be enjoyed at the same time by any two persons standing in
the relation of husband and wife to each other.
6thly. That the annual sum of £300 shall be applied for
the maintenance of a school or schools for the education and
clothing of thirty-six boys, or of twenty- four boys and twelve
girls, more or less of each, at the discretion of the Master,
Brothers, and Sisters, such boys and girls to be bound appren
tices, at their age of fourteen years, to some suitable trade or
business, with premiums of from £15 to £25 each.
7thly. Por increasing the present stipend of the Master to
the yearly sum of £1,200.
And after the several allowances and payments aforesaid
the surplus revenues were to be reserved and set apart for the
necessary repairs of the chapel and other buildings belonging
to the Hospital, for defraying the charges of snits and
expenses concerning the revenues of the same, for the pay
ment of officers and servants employed therein, and for all
other public uses of the said Hospital whatsoever.
XVI. Since the date of these orders the Hospital has
continued to consist of the following members : —
1 Master.
3 Brothers.
3 Sisters.
20 Bedesmen.
20 Bedeswomen.
Their position in the Hospital and the duties and emolu
ments of the several members of the foundation, appear to be
as follows : —

158
The Master, who is appointed by the Patron of the Hos
pital, has a general superintendence over the affairs of the Hos
pital, so far as such supervision is necessary. He occasionally
visits the schools. He attends the general meetings of the
Chapter, which are, comparatively speaking, of rare occur
rence ; and in the meantime he is said to be in constant com
munication with the several officers of the establishment. He
has a good house, with coachhouse, stabling, and garden, pro
vided for him ; but, under the circumstances mentioned in
Mr. Skirrow's report, he has ceased to reside therein, and he
lets the house, together with the garden, for his own use and
benefit. He is entitled to an annual stipend of £1,200 out of
the revenues of the Hospital, as well as under Lord Somers'
rules to one-third of the fines received upon the renewals of
leases, and to a small sum (about £28) part of the dividends
payable on the purchase money of some portion of the Hos-^
pital estates which was taken by the Blackwall Railway.
The Brothers and Sisters are also appointed by the Patron,
and they have good and suitable residences provided for them
at St. Katharine's. The Brothers receive each annually
under the orders and rules of Lord Somers and Lord Lynd-
hurst a stipend of £300 out of the revenues of the Hospital
estates, a share of the fines, a sum of £25 paid out of the
compensation paid by the Dock Company for the loss of
surplus fees, and a small sum out of the Blackwall dividends.
In addition to these emoluments, one of the Brothers holds
a living of considerable value, which is in the gift of the
Chapter. The principal duties of the Brothers are to celebrate divine
service in the church or chapel. This duty they perform in
turn, and they are assisted by a reader or chaplain appointed
in 1844 at an annual salary of £100. They also while in
residence superintend the school and manage all the ordinary
business of the place and the smaller charities in the distribu
tion of the offertory.
In like manner the Sisters receive each a stipend of £200
a year out of the revenues of the Hospital estates, and a share
of the fines and the Blackwall dividends ; they have no special
duties assigned to them ; they attend the school, especially
the girls' school, and a book is kept in the school showing
their attendance from time to time.

159
. Some of the Brothers and Sisters have been in the habit of
letting the residences allotted to them, instead of inhabiting
them. The Master with the three Brothers and three Sisters con
stitute the Chapter. They have all equal votes, and a quorum
consists of three of the Brothers and Sisters, together with the
Master, who must always be one.
XVII. Such is the foundation as now regulated by Lord
Lyndhurst's scheme. But besides, and in addition to those
members of the foundation, the following persons are either
recipients of the charity, or are paid out of the income of the
charity. The bedesmen and bedeswomen are appointed by the
Master, and are usually selected from persons who have been
servants and are in advanced years. They have no duties to
perform, they reside where they like, and receive a yearly
stipend of £10 in two half-yearly payments.
There is also a chaplain or reader to assist the officiating
Brother and to examine the school ; he receives, as stated
above, £100 a year.
There is likewise a Chapter clerk, who receives £100 a year.
And there is an organist, sexton, bailiff, surveyor, and a
head gardener, with under gardeners, who are also paid out of
the revenues of the charity.
XVIII. Soon after the date of and in obedience to the
rules of Lord Lyndhurst, a small schoolroom for girls was
erected on the grounds belonging to the Hospital in the
Regent's Park, and a school was established. In the year
1849 the present Master obtained the sanction of Queen
Adelaide, the patron of the Hospital, to rebuild the school-
house and make provision for the gradual increase of the
numbers of the school to 36 boys and 24 girls ; and by a war
rant under her seal, dated May 4, 1849, it was ordered that the
number of boys educated and clothed should be from time to
time, as the revenues of the Hospital would permit, progres
sively increased to the number of 36, and the number of the
girls to 24, with all the privileges , profits, gratuities, and rewards
whatsoever as of right then enjoyed by the boys and girls
then educated at the schools.
In pursuance of this warrant the number of the boys educated
in the school was increased, and it reached the maximum in

160

1865 ; since that time it has never been reduced. The number
of girls reached 18, and has remained at that number. They
have never reached the contemplated maximum of 24. The
boys and girls chiefly come from the neighbourhood; they
receive an entirely free education. They are clothed but not
fed. When they leave the school the girls have an outfit, and
when they are of age, that is about five years afterwards, if
they return with a good character, they receive £5. The boys
are apprenticed at sums varying from £15 to £25. At the
end of their term of apprenticeship, if they return with a good
character, they receive £5. The school is a day school;
admission to it is much sought after. There is an annual
examination and inspection conducted by the Chaplain and
one of the Brothers. The schoolmaster has £80 a year. The
schoolmistress has £40 ; both are said to be good, but neither
of them are certificated.
XIX. The annual income of St. Katharine's, prior to the
removal of the Hospital to its present site, was comparatively^
small, amounting, it is said, to about £611. 13s. 4<d., exclusive
of fines. Since that time it has greatly increased.
The present income is derived in part from the dividends
of such part of the purchase money paid by the Dock Com
pany as has not been invested in the purchase of land, and in
part from the rents of the estates of the Hospital.
We subjoin a tabular statement of the receipts and expen
diture for the five years, 1864, 1865, 1866, 1867, and 1868.

EECEIPTS, including Balances in hand and casual Moneys,
inclusive.

for the Five Years, 1864 to 186&:

1864

1865

1866

1867

1

Balances in hand from preceding year .
Rents, including arrears of increased rent of
Chesingbury.
Dividends on stock money ....
Manorial profits and quit rents . ¦ •
Allowances on insurances, policies .

& a. d.
1,898 13 54
4,331 10 0
925 0 0
1,835 1 5
4 11 2
13 12 0
135 11 1

£ a. d.
1,493 4 54
4,498 8 9
1,847 3 3
10 2 9
4 4 6
1,873 7 0
20 0 0

£ a. d.
600 n 14
4,361 10 0
1,865 0 6
9 6 4
7 18 0

£ a. d.
4,590 10 9
1,733 2 6
13 3 2
192 ' 0 6

£ a. d.:
4,571 'oil
1,597 11 4a
9 10 11
4 11 0
30 ' 0 63

5
Balance in advance at the end of the year
9,144 5 14
9,746 10 84
6,834 4 114
495 18 10
6,528 16 5
169 12 4
6,212 14 2'
131 8 4;
7,330 3 94
6,698 8 9
6,344 2 «i
EXPENDITUEE, including Balances in hand

, for Five Years, 1864 to 1868, inclusive.

1864

1865

1866

1867

1868

£ a.

d.

£ >.

d.

£ a. d.

£ a. d.

£ a. d.

495 18 10
169 12 4
Master:
0
1,177 10
0
1,180 0 0
1,177 1 8
1,170 0 0
300 12
6
Proportion of railway dividends .
42 11
O
42 17
8
42 17 8
40 14 6
42 9 8
Brothers :
876 11
150 6
33
881 6
0
885 0 0
8S1 5 0
877 10 0
72 19
3
73 8
9
73 15 0
73 8 9
73 2 6
Proportion of railway dividends .
21 5
0
21 8 10
21 8 10
21 8 10
21 6 0
Proportion of railway dividends .
684 7
150 6
21 5
636
587 10
21 8
0
10
590 0 0
21 8 10
587 10 0
21 8 10
585 0 0
21 5 0
Bedesmen :
200 0
0
200 0
0
200 0 0
200 0 0
2C0 0 0
Bedeswomen :
Resident compensation ....
200 0
0
200 0
0
200 0 0
200 0 0
200 0 0
16 15
0
16 15
0
16 15 0
16 16 0
16 6 0
Chapel Reader :
Sexton and compensation ....
97 3
9
98 2
6
98 6 8
97 18 4
97 10 0
40 0
0
40 0
0
60 0 0
60 0 0
60 0 0
43 1
0
43 1
0
43 1 0
43 1 0
43 1 0
Organ tuning and repairs ....
10 10
0
10 10
0
10 10 0
10 10 0
10 10 0
Oloet-winding and repairs ....
10 6 10
8 2
s
2 2 0
5 5 0
3 3 0
85 12 6
10 11 0
Master, stipend, and allowance for coals .
75 0
u
90 0
0
96 0 0
95 0 0
95 0 0
40 0
0
40 0
0
40 0 0
40 0 0
40 0 0
Books, stationerv, materials for work,
rewards, and petty expenses .
70 9
0
104 6
2
132 9 8
110 15 0
105 9 11
Clothing boys and girls ....
214 16 10
224 3
3
264 6 5
270 13 8
213 15 3
130 0
0
60 0
0
40 0 0
80 0 0
45 0 0
Rewards for good conduct in service .
24 0
0
20 0
0
39 0 0
39 0 0
55 0 0
Robert Thorn, disabled, sexton .
20 0
0
20 0
0
20 0 0
20 0 0
20 0 0
Ann Oram, ancient pewopener and sexton's
20 0
u
20 0
0
20 0 0
20 0 0
20 0 0
40 0 0
40 0 0
40 0 O
Donations and subscriptions :
Sporle Church Restoration ....
100 0
0
3 3
0
3 3
0
3 3 0
3 3 0
3 3 0
¦ Bellings School and Clothing Club .
10 10
0
10 10
0
10 10 0
10 10 0
10 10 0
St. Peter's, Northampton, School
5 0
0
5 0
u
5 0 0
5 0 0
6 0 0
Bythorn School and Clothing Club
10 0
0
10 0
0
10 0 0
10 0 0
10 0 0
5 6
0
5 5
0
5 5 0
5 5 0
5 5 0
10 0
0
10 0
0
10 0 0
10 0 0
10 0 0
Queenborough School 
5 0
0
5 0
u
5 0 0
5 0 0
6 0 0
Labourers at Bythorn, towards purchase of
goods and tools destroyed at the fire.
10 0
0
Chapter Bond :
500 0 0
85 1
0
85 13
7
73 15 0
61 6 7
61 1 6
Officers:
Chapter clerk and receiver
97 3
9
98 2
«
98 6 8
97 18 4
97 10 0
1 1
0
1 1
0
110
110
110
Bailiff 
2 0
0
2 0
0
2 0 0
2 0 0
2 0 0
50 0
0
50 0
0
60 0 0
50 0 0
50 0 0
Chapter messenger and porter .
20 0
0
20 0
0
20 0 0
20 0 0
20 0 0
1 1
0
1 1
0
110
110
110
23 0
')
23 0
1)
23 0 0
23 0 0
23 0 0
41 12
0
41 12
0
41 12 0
41 12 0
41 12 0
41 12
0
41 12
0
41 12 0
41 12 0
41 12 0
Bospital buildings and master's lodge.
¦ Charges on, viz. :
Taxes on hospital, schools, &c. .
12 11 11
18 6
3
21 19 0
20 0 2
23 19 10
255 10
5
249 0
5
264 2 10
268 5 2
281 10 11
23 16
9
23 18
1
24 16 3
23 14 3
27 7 9
1 Insurance, hospital buildings
Bepairs of same ....
450 19
5
622 13
9
1,302 13 7
668 14 5
916 8 6
13 7
0
10 15 9
37 10 11
18 10 5
Estate expenses :
Repairs and new buildings ....
1,524 12
0
3,644 8
3
328 12 24
265 1 6
206 15 4
8 8
3
41 12
6
22 2 10
20 11 4
19 10 4
Bates and taxes allowed to tenants .
198 12
9
190 5
8
178 6 3
106 0 7
102 16 4
Journeys to visit estates
38 11
0
40 6
4
23 9 4
21 2 1
16 19 7
119 4 6
144 8 6
For copy report of Charity Commissioners
¦
Interest on purchase money of Titchmarsh,
and expenses under conditions of sale
Receipt stamps and postages
Balance in hand at the end of year
2 0
1,493 4
54
2 0
600 11
IJ
2 0 0
9,144 5
H
9,746 10
84
7,330 3 94
6,698 8 9
6,344 2 6
M
162
, It will be seen from this statement that the receipts and
expenditure nearly balance each other. But it is clear that
by adopting an improved mode of letting the lands, that is to
say, by discontinuing the objectionable system of letting the
Hospital estates upon fines or for lives, the annual income of
the Hospital might be greatly increased.
XX. With the view of ascertaining how that object might
best be accomplished, we desired that the consideration of
this important matter should be referred to the experienced
surveyors Messrs. Clutton, in order that they might report as
to what value might be added to the property by any and
what change of management.
XXI. Messrs. Clutton report that the system of letting
the Hospital estates upon fines and for lives has long since
been held to be improvident and tending to imperfect
management and cultivation. They then remark, ' Assuming
that it will be discontinued, we proceed to ascertain what
present income might be derived from the country estates by
converting them at once into possession either by a sale of
the reversion, or by purchase of the outstanding leasehold
terms, as may be found expedient or possible, or by allowing
the several leases to run out. If an immediate increase of
income should be deemed advisable the conversion of the
estates into possession must be proceeded with ; but if the
leases are allowed to run out, we need scarcely say a larger
ultimate increase in the revenue of the Hospital will be
obtained.' The consequence of adopting either of these alternatives
is estimated as follows, viz. . If the whole of the above leases
should at once be dealt with a present increase of income of
about £2,290 may be expected ; but if the leases are run out
an ultimate increase of income of about £4,200 will probably
be obtained. XXII. The foregoing observations refer to the country '
estates let on beneficial leases only.
With regard to the London estates, there is a small
property in College Street, let for a term of 40 years from
Lady Day 1863 at a reserved rent of £16 ; but the property
is not of a class to be retained, and if it could be sold upon
reasonable terms a probable increase of income of £28 might
be obtained.

163
There is also another estate in London, situate in Trinity
Square and Tower Hill, with reference to which Messrs.
Clutton recommend that a special arrangement should be
made. The effect of the proposition is that if such arrange
ment could be legally sanctioned a lease of that property for
80 years might advantageously be made to Messrs. Myers,
the present tenants, at a ground rent of £900. This would
add to the immediate income of the charity about £645 per
annum. In addition to these properties which may thus be dealt
with, there are three advowsons belonging to the Hospital,
the benefices of which are stated to be of the annual value of
£1,530. XXIII. On a careful consideration of this report, we
conceive that it would conduce to the permanent benefit and
extension of the charity, that steps should be taken and
powers obtained for completing at once the arrangement with
Messrs. Myers, and also for selling the small property in
College Street. By these means a considerable increase will
directly accrue to the charity income. But with regard to
the other property, we submit to your Majesty that since
there is no immediate demand on the charity funds which
may not be satisfied out of that increased income, and since a
larger ultimate increase of income will be derived from a
gradual rather than from an immediate change of tenure, it
would be more advisable, instead of converting the country
estates at once into possession, that the abolition of the
present system of granting leases of the Hospital estates
should be proceeded with by degrees as lives drop, and as
leases fall in. There have been no renewals since 1864 ; but
three of the lives upon which the leases of some of the
Hospital estates were held have since fallen in ; and this has
occasioned a loss of income to the members of the Chapter.
Por this loss, as well as for any loss which may accrue to the
present Master and Chapter of the Hospital in consequence of
discontinuing the system of letting the Hospital estates upon
fines and for lives, compensation will have to be given. The
just amount of that compensation should be calculated by
Messrs. Clutton, and paid out of the first available funds, or
by a charge on the improved property, to be repaid to it by
annual instalments. M 2

164
XXP7. Should these suggestions be adopted, there will
be a small immediate and a large prospective addition to the
revenues of the Hospital ; and it will, therefore, be necessary
to consider in what way this increased income may be best
applied, immediately and prospectively, for furthering the
objects for which the charity has been founded and admin
istered. XXV. Immediately we would submit that the number of
girls in the school should at once be raised to 24, as directed
by the warrant of Queen Adelaide.
The increased rent from the Tower Hill estate would be
much more than sufficient for this purpose. The surplus
should be applied, as far as the same will extend, towards
making good the average loss of fines to the members of the
Chapter, and the remainder should be accumulated until an
enlarged and extended scheme, depending in a great measure
on the additional value to be given to the estates by an
improved tenure, can be either altogether or in part accom
plished. XXVI. Prospectively, it may be estimated that, if the
foregoing recommendations should be adopted, the gross
income of the charity will not be less than between £10,000
and £11,000 a year.
Besides this income, there is the property in Regent's
Park, which may probably be made, by new arrangements,
more directly available for the purposes of the charity than it
is at present. This property at present consists of a piece
of land of about two acres, on which is built the lodge of the
Master, and another piece of land, the site of the chapel, the
schoolhouse, and the residences of the Brothers and Sisters,
containing about one acre.
The houses of the Brothers and Sisters are suitable
residences, and sufficiently convenient ; but the Master's
lodge — consisting as it does of a double coach-house, with
stables for seven horses, a conservatory, greenhouses, and
forcing houses — is unnecessarily large, very expensive, and
out of all proportion to the wants of the charity.
XXVII. A re-arrangement of the property in Regent's
Park will greatly conduce to the benefit of the charity
according to the scheme which we are about to suggest.

165
XXVIII. Before, however, we state the particulars of
that scheme, it is our duty to inform your Majesty that during
the course of this inquiry several propositions for the appli
cation of the revenues of the Hospital have been laid before
us by or on behalf of several parishes or institutions desirous
of sharing in any benefits which may be derived from its
enlarged income.
Of these propositions, some were founded on the assump
tion that the precincts of the old Hospital near the Tower, and
the parishes adjoining thereto, had claims to a share of the
increased revenues of the Hospital ; and others have rested
their claims on the similarity between the original objects
of the founders of the Hospital and those of the institution
existing or proposed on whose behalf the claim was preferred.
Some, for instance, have submitted to us that the funds
should be applied (pursuant to the 65th section of the 113th
chapter of the statutes passed in the third and fourth years of
your Majesty's reign,) in better providing for the cure of
souls in the parishes immediately adjacent to the old precincts
where the Hospital was situated. Others have suggested that
the revenues of the Hospital should be applied towards the
foundation of * a Missionary Collegiate Church, as a centre of
missionary work for the East of London, with model schools,
refuges, reformatories, and industrial, religious, charitable,
and social institutions for young and old, conducted by clergy
laymen, and women, whether brethren and sisters, or paid
masters and mistresses.' The Incumbent of St. George's-in-
the-East has proposed to apply the revenues in maintaining
the fabric of the church in that parish, and converting it into
a ' Collegiate Church, under a dean and canons or fellows,
who, with a sisterhood, might devote themselves to the
spiritual, moral, and social benefit of the parish of St. Greorge-
in-the-East and the neighbouring parishes.' And the last
application submitted to us was made on behalf of the Adult
Orphan Institution.
XXIX. However good in the main all such objects may
be, your Majesty's commissioners cannot but consider that,
with regard to those schemes which contemplate a local
application of the funds, it would not be expedient to fix on
the property a merely local character, inasmuch as the Hospital

166
never had such a character when it was originally instituted ;
and with regard to those schemes of a more general nature, it
would hardly be right that the funds of the property should
be diverted to purposes entirely new, as long as there are.
purposes connected with the charity to which they can be
beneficially and appropriately given.
XXX. For these reasons, we would therefore recommend
that, except for the purpose of increasing the number of female
scholars to 24, as directed by Lord Lyndhurst's rules and
orders, the present constitution of the charity should remain
as it is, until the income shall so far be improved as to admit
of an improved and more extended scheme ; and when that
occurs such scheme should be made consistent with the general
objects for which the charity was originally instituted or
subsequently enlarged.
XXXI. We would accordingly suggest, that as soon as
the increased income of the charity will permit :
lstly. That the Foundation shall ultimately consist of a
Master, four Brothers, and three Sisters, to be appointed
by the Patron ; and in all cases which shall come before
them for decision, the Master of the Hospital, where
there shall be an equality of voices, shall have a casting
vote.
2ndly. That one of the four Brothers shall be the Head
Master of the enlarged and extended school or schools
which we are about to recommend.
3rdly. That the Master of the Hospital shall be entitled to
a stipend of £800 per annum, and no more.
4thly. That each of the Brothers shall be each entitled to
an annual stipend of £400, and no more.
5thly. The provision lastly hereinbefore recommended as to
the stipend of the Brothers shall be extended to such
of the existing Brothers as shall be willing to receive
such increased stipend instead of their interest in any
future fines.
6thly. That each of the three Sisters shall be entitled to an
annual stipend of £300, and no more.
7thly. That the Master of the Hospital and the Brothers
and Sisters shall be entitled to residences within the
precincts or grounds of the Hospital ; and they shall

167
be required to reside therein, unless a special permission
to the contrary shall be accorded to them by the
Patron for the time being.
8thly. That any of the Brothers who shall be instituted to
one of the charity livings shall thereupon cease to be a
Brother of the Hospital ; and in case no Brother shall
be willing to be instituted to a vacant Chapter living
within three months of a vacancy occurring, the Chapter
shall present to such living the clerk whom the Patron
of the Hospital for the time being shall be pleased to
nominate.
9thly. That the twenty bedesmen and twenty bedeswomen
be retained, but that they shall be appointed in future
by the Patron of the Hospital, with stipends not
exceeding £20 a year each.
lOthly. That the benefits to be derived from a daily school
on the grounds of the Hospital shall be extended and
enlarged, so as to admit of a greater number of boys
and girls being educated thereiu ; and also to give to
such of the boys and girls whose parents may desire it
a higher class of education and instruction, and in
such manner as is hereinafter recommended.
llthly. That after the death or resignation of the present
Master, or during his lifetime, if he consents thereto,
the present Master's house, with the sanction of the
Patron, may be so altered, enlarged, adapted, and fitted
up, or, if necessary, removed and rebuilt on a new site,
so as best to promote the purposes mentioned in the
recommendations numbered 10, 16, and 17 respect
ively.
12thly. That the Master of the Hospital and the Brothers
shall have the general superintendence and control of
the boys in the school, and the Master of the Hospital
and the Sisters shall have the general superintendence
and control of the girls in the School.
13thly. That the Master and the Brothers and Sisters shall,
with the consent of the Patron, have the power of
appointing such assistant masters and mistresses, as
may be required for the school or schools from time to
time. They shall be provided with suitable residences,
and be paid by fixed salaries.

168
14thly. That in addition to the existing school, hereafter to
be called the Lower School, another school, to be called
the Upper School, shall be established and maintained
out of the revenues of the Hospital, when and as soon
as the increase of the funds shall admit of its esta
blishment.
15thly. That the Lower School shall be carried on in the
existing school buildings, and shall be for the reception
and education of 36 boys and 24 girls, to be not less
than 7 years old at the time of their admission, to be
called Foundation scholars, who shall up to the age of
12 years be educated free of expense.
16thly. That the Upper School shall be carried on in the
new school buildings to be erected as hereinbefore
recommended, and shall be for the reception and
education of so many children as can from time to
time, in the judgment of the Master and Chapter of the
Hospital, with the consent of the Patron for the time
being, be conveniently admitted thereto, and with such
proportions as to sexes, and at such respective ages, as
the Master and Chapter, with such consent as aforesaid,
shall direct, upon the payment of fifteen shillings a
year, such payment to be made to the Master of the
said Upper School ; but Foundation scholars may be
transferred to such school, and educated therein free of
expense, boys up to the age of 14 years, and girls up
to the age of 16 years ; and such Foundation scholars
shall have the same benefit of apprenticeship and
otherwise, except clothing, as is provided by the
existing rules.
17thly. That, so soon after the establishment of the Upper
School, as above recommended, as the funds of the
Hospital shall admit, six boys and six girls, to be
called ' Foundation Boarders,' and to be appointed by
the Patron for the time being, shall be admitted to the
said Upper or Lower Schools, and shall be transferred
from the ' Lower ' to the ' Upper School,' when and as
their respective ages or progress in education may
require it, and shall be lodged, boarded, and educated,
entirely free of expense, from the time of their admis-

169
sion into the said school, the boys until they shall at
tain the age of 15 years, and the girls until they shall
attain the age of 16 years ; and that ultimately with
the increase of the funds the number of such Foun
dation boarders shall be increased to 12 boys and 12
girls.
18thly. That the instruction to be given in such school or
schools shall comprise, as far as may be, —
The principles of the Christian religion, and the reading and
study of the Holy Scriptures.
The Latin and one modern language, and English literature.
Mathematics, algebra, arithmetic, and book-keeping.
History and geography.
Drawing and designing.
Physics, mechanics, chemistry, and the natural sciences,
especially with their application to the industrial and
practical arts.
And generally such subjects as the Master of the Hospital,
Brothers, and Sisters, shall from time to time prescribe, for
affording to the scholars a sound religious, moral, and useful
education. 19thly. That the Master of the Hospital and the Brothers
and Sisters shall, with the sanction of the Patron for the time
being, have the power of making such regulations as may be
found necessary or deemed expedient for the maintenance,
discipline, and management of such school or schools ; and
with the like sanction, they may alter or amend the same, as
circumstances may require.
20thly. That the rules and orders heretofore made by Lord
Chancellor Somers and Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst shall still
be in force, except so far as they have been altered, varied, or
added to by the foregoing recommendations; and these
recommendations shall be read together with such orders and
rules, and deemed and taken to be statutes of the Hospital,
which the Master, Brethren, and Sisters are bound to observe.
21stly. That a private Act of Parliament be obtained to
give effect to several parts of this our report.
And, 22ndly and lastly, that in each year accounts of the
revenue and expenditure of the Hospital be rendered to the
Lord Chancellor, and audited by one or more auditors to be

170
appointed by the Lord Chancellor, who shall be authorised to
transmit the same for safe custody to the Charity Commis
sioners. All which we humbly submit to your Majesty's favourable
and gracious consideration. HATHERLET. (l.s.)
SPENCER H. WALPOLE. (l.s.)
TR AVERS TWISS. (l.s.)

171

EXTRACT FROM HANSARD.
House of Lords.
July 28, 1871.
Earl Nelson ' moved that an humble Address be presented
to Her Majesty thanking Her Majesty for having presented
to Parliament the Report of the Royal Commission appointed
to inquire into several matters relative to the Royal Hospital
of St. Katharine near the Tower and now situate in Regent's
Park, and praying Her Majesty that in any scheme founded
on this report due attention may be paid to the spiritual and
educational necessities of the parishes adjacent to the old
precincts of the Hospital.' f
After a short debate on question their Lordships divided :
Contents 22 ; non-contents 20 ; majority 2. Resolved in the
affirmative. Ordered, that the said Address be presented to Her
Majesty by the Lords with white staves.
August 7.
Her Majesty's answer to the Address of July 28 last,
reported as follows —
' My Lords — I have received your Address thanking me for
having presented to Parliament the Report of the Commission
appointed to inquire into several matters relative to the Royal
Hospital of St. Katharine near the Tower and now situate
in Regent's Park, and praying that in any scheme founded on
this Report due attention may be paid to the spiritual and
educational necessities of the parishes adjacent to the old
precincts of the Hospital.
' I will take your Address into consideration together with
the Report of my Commissioners.'