TOMBS OF FOUNDERS AND BENEFACTORS

[♦ ] 12. JOHN BARSTAPLE

(Burgess of Bristol)

Many benefactors as­soc­iat­ed them­selves so close­ly with their bed­emen that they de­sired to be buried within the precincts of the hos­pi­tal. Robert de Meulan, one of the p084 Conqueror’s lords, is said to have founded and en­dowed Brack­ley hos­pi­tal, where his heart was em­balmed. His des­cen­dant, Roger, Earl of Win­chester, a con­si­der­able bene­fac­tor in the time of Henry III, “ordered a measure to be made for corn in the shape of a coffin, and gave dir­ec­tions that it should be placed on the right side of the shrine, in which the heart of Margaret his mother lay in­tombed,” pro­viding that it should be filled thrice in a year for ever for the use of the hos­pi­tal.[60] The chapel p085 con­tin­ued to be a fav­ou­rite place of in­ter­ment, for Leland says:—“There ly buryed in Tumbes dyvers Noble Men and Women.” Bishop Suffield directed that if he should die away from Norwich—as he afterwards did—his heart should be placed near the altar in the church of St. Giles’ hospital. The blind and aged Henry of Lancaster and Leicester was buried in his hospital church, the royal family and a great company being present (1345); and there likewise his son was laid. Few founders’ tombs remain undisturbed in a spot still hallowed by divine worship, but some have happily escaped destruction. Rahere has an honoured place at St. Bartholomew’s. The mailed effigy of Sir Henry de Sandwich—lord warden of the Cinque Ports—remains in the humbler St. Bartholomew’s near Sandwich. The fine alabaster monument of Alice, Duchess of Suffolk, is in perfect preservation at Ewelme. The rebuilt chapel of Trinity Hospital, Bristol, retains a monumental brass of the founder (Fig. 12) and his wife.