THIRD PERIOD (1272–1540)
Few royal builders or benefactors can be named at this time. Edward I, who, from various motives, set his face like a flint against the Jews, was a beneficent patron to those who were prepared to submit to Baptism; and he reorganized and endowed his father’s House of Converts. His charity, however, was of a somewhat belligerent character and partook of the nature of a crusade. He was always extremely harsh towards the unconverted Jew; his early training as champion of the Cross in the Holy Land helped to make him zealous in ridding his own kingdom of unbelievers. But before finally expelling them, he did his best for their conversion, enlisting the help of the trained and eloquent Dominican brethren. Edward with justice ordained that as by custom the goods of the converts became the king’s, he should henceforth “provide healthfully for their maintenance”; and he granted them a moiety of their property when they became, by Baptism, “sons and faithful members of the Church.” The chevage, or Jewish poll-tax, and certain other Jewish payments, were appropriated to the Domus Conversorum, over £200 being paid annually from the Exchequer. Edward took an interest in “the king’s converts” and drew up careful regulations for them. Eleanor, his consort, was a benefactor of the royal hospital near the Tower, and she was also by tradition the founder of St. John’s, Gorleston.
The unhappy Richard II desired in his will that five or six thousand marks should be devoted to the maintenance of lepers at Westminster and Bermondsey.[58] p080 The reference to “the chaplains celebrating before them for us” seems to imply that the king was the patron if not the founder; possibly one house was that of Knightsbridge. The will of Henry VII provided for the erection of three great charitable institutions. He was at least liberal in this, that he began in his lifetime the conversion of his palace of Savoy into a noble hospital. (Pl. XIV.) Its completion at the cost of 10,000 marks was the only part of his plan carried out, and of the 40,000 marks designed to be similarly expended at York and Coventry, nothing more is heard.
The great lords of this period who were founders are led by two distinguished kinsmen and counsellors of Edward III—each a Henry of Lancaster and Steward of England. The father, when he was becoming blind, erected St. Mary’s at Leicester for fifty poor (1330), and his son doubled the foundation. Richard, Earl of Arundel—the victor of Sluys—began to found the Maison Dieu, Arundel, in 1380, but he was executed on a charge of treason; and the work ceased until his son, having obtained fresh letters-patent from Henry V (1423), set himself to complete the design. Several notable veterans of the French campaign may be mentioned as hospital builders, namely, Michael de la Pole (Kingston-upon-Hull), Sir Robert Knolles (Pontefract), Walter, Lord Hungerford (Heytesbury) and William de la Pole (Ewelme); when the latter became unpopular and was executed as a traitor, his wife Alice—called on her tomb fundatrix—completed the building and endowment of God’s House. (Pl. XVII.)
[♦] PLATE VIII. HOSPITAL OF ST. CROSS, WINCHESTER
GATEWAY AND DWELLINGS BUILT BY CARDINAL BEAUFORT
Although the benevolence of bishops now chiefly took the form of educational institutions, some well-known prelates p081 erected hospitals. Bubwith—Treasurer of England under Henry IV—planned St. Saviour’s, Wells, but it was not begun in his lifetime. Beaufort—Lord Chancellor and Cardinal—refounded St. Cross, but, owing to the York and Lancaster struggle, the design was not fully carried out. His rival Chichele—the faithful Primate of Henry V—built not only All Souls, Oxford, but the bede-house at Higham Ferrers. There is a tradition that while keeping the sheep by the riverside he was met by William of Wykeham, who recognized his talents and provided for his education. He afterwards desired to found a college in the place where he was baptized, and of this the almshouse formed part. William Smyth—founder of Brasenose—restored St. John’s during his short episcopate at Lichfield. When translated to Lincoln, he turned his attention to St. John’s, Banbury, and bequeathed £100 towards erecting and repairing its buildings, in addition to £60 already bestowed upon it. “This man,” says Fuller, “wheresoever he went, may be followed by the perfume of Charity he left behind him.”
It was undoubtedly townsfolk who were the principal founders of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The name of many an old merchant-prince is still a household word in his native place, where some institution remains as a noble record of his bounty. St. John’s, Winchester, for example, was erected by an alderman, John Devenish, its revenues being increased by another of the family and by a later mayor; and the memory of benefactors was kept fresh by a “love-feast and merry meeting” on the Sunday after Midsummer Day. William Elsyng established a large almshouse near Cripplegate. He was a mercer of influential position, being given a licence to travel in the p082 king’s service beyond seas with Henry of Lancaster; and it may have been this nobleman’s charitable work in Leicester that inspired the foundation known as “Our Lady of Elsyngspital.”
A more famous London mercer, Richard Whittington, proved himself the “model merchant of the Middle Ages”; Lysons records his manifold beneficent deeds. Although he did not live long enough to carry out all his schemes, his executors completed them, and in particular, the almshouse attached to St. Michael Royal. In a deed drawn up after his death (1423) and now preserved in the Mercers’ Hall, is a fine pen-and-ink sketch which depicts the passing of this “father of the poor.” (Pl. IX.) John Carpenter and other friends stand round the sick man; nor are we left in doubt as to the significance of the group at the foot of the bed—evidently twelve bedemen, led by one who holds a rosary in token of his intercessory office—it being recorded in the document that:—
“the foresayde worthy and notable merchaunt, Richard Whittington, the which while he leued had ryght liberal and large hands to the needy and poure people, charged streitly on his death bed us his foresayde executors to ordeyne a house of almes, after his death . . . and thereupon fully he declared his will unto us.”[59]
The same benefactor not only repaired St. Bartholomew’s, but added a refuge for women to St. Thomas’, Southwark, as is set forth by William Gregory, one of Whittington’s successors in the mayoralty:—
[♦] PLATE IX. THE DEATH OF RICHARD WHITTINGTON
“And that nobyl marchaunt Rycharde Whytyngdon, made a new chamby[r] with viij beddys for yong weme[n] that hadde done a-mysse in truste of a good mendement. And he p083 commaundyd that alle the thyngys that ben don in that chambyr shulde be kepte secrete with owte forthe, yn payne of lesynge of hyr leuynge; for he wolde not shame no yonge women in noo wyse, for hyt myght be cause of hyr lettyng of hyr maryage.”
“Verily,” we exclaim with Lysons, “there seems to be no end to the good deeds of this good man.”
Nor were other places without their public-spirited townsmen. Unlike “Dick” Whittington who died childless, Thomas Ellis left twenty-three sons and daughters: nevertheless this large-hearted draper provided an almshouse for his poorer neighbours in Sandwich.
The wealth of William Browne of Stamford and of Roger Thornton of Newcastle-upon-Tyne was proverbial when Leland visited those industrial centres and saw the charities which they had established. Browne, founder of the bede-house (Fig. 5), “was a Marchant of a very wonderful Richeness.” Thornton, a very poor man, reported to have been a pedlar, who rose to be nine times mayor, was remembered as “the richest Marchaunt that ever was dwelling in Newcastelle.” While in this way many that were rich made offerings of their abundance, there were those, too, who gave of their penury. Such was “Adam Rypp, of Whittlsey, a poor man, who began to build a Poor’s Hospital there, but had not sufficient means to finish it.” His work was commended to the faithful by briefs from Bishop Fordham of Ely (1391–4).