2. BEQUESTS
The money chest, larder and wardrobe were replenished largely by legacies. Amongst the earliest recorded are those of Henry II and his son, William Longespée. Henry left a large sum to religious houses in England and Normandy, and particularly to lepers. Longespée bequeathed cows to lepers in the hospitals of Salisbury, Maiden Bradley and Wilton, as well as to St. John’s, Wilton, and St. Bartholomew’s, Smithfield (1225). Men in humbler circumstances were likewise generous. A certain William de Paveli left 12d. each to eight hospitals in Northampton, Brackley, Towcester, Newport Pagnell, Hocclive and Stra[t]ford (circa 1240).[107] Wills abound in references of a similar character. Early legacies were made to the hospital as a body, but when the renunciation of individual property by the staff ceased, money was given to individuals; a benefactor of St. p182 Giles’, Norwich, left 20 marks to the master and brethren, 40d. each to other officials, and 2s. to each bed (1357).[108] Gifts were frequently made to patients; Stephen Forster desired that 100s. should be given away in five city hospitals, besides five marks in pence to inmates of St. Bartholomew’s, Bristol (1458). An endowment of penny doles was provided by Lady Maud Courtenay in Exeter, namely thirteen pence annually for twenty years “to xiii pore men of Symon Grendon is hous” (1464). Testamentary gifts were also made in the form of clothes, bedding, utensils, etc. The founder of St. Giles’, Norwich, left to it “the cup out of which the poor children drank,” probably some vessel of his own hitherto lent for the scholars daily meal.