In the reign of Henry I. this chapel was given by Roger, Earl of Warwick, to the Church of St. Mary. That it was of very small value is proved by the fact that in 1368, in the reign of Edward III., the latter was estimated at only £1.
LEICESTER’S HOSPITAL, WARWICK.
In 1383, in the reign of Richard II., the advowson was given to the Guild of St. George, and the fraternity established in Warwick the same year was founded by a license granted to Robert Dynelay, Hugh Cooke, and William Russell on the 20th of April, giving them privilege to extend their numbers by admission of other inhabitants of the borough, and to build a chantry for two priests to sing mass every day in the Chapel, which stood over the west gate, for the good estate of King Richard and his consort Ann; of his mother, also Michael de la Pole, and all the brothers and sisters of the said Guild during their lives in this world, and for the everlasting happiness of their souls, as also for the souls of King Edward III., Edward Prince of Wales, the father of Richard II., and their royal progenitors, and all the faithful departed.
Thomas de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, eventually had license to give the advowson of the Church of St. James at the same time that the Guild brethren purchased two houses, a loft, and the quarry in Warwick for their use.
At length, however, the Guild of St. George the Martyr and the Guild of the Holy Trinity and the Virgin, in the early part of Henry VI.’s reign, became one, and four priests belonging to the Guilds sang masses; two of them at “Our Lady’s Chapel” in St. Mary’s, and the others in the two chapels built over the gates. This Guild also paid in part the secular canons attached to St. Mary’s Church, gave a weekly dole of alms to eight poor people of the Guild, and also assisted in maintaining the great bridge over the Avon.
After the Dissolution of the Monasteries the establishment was granted by Edward VI., on July 23, 1551, to Sir Nicholas l’Estrange, Kt. and his heirs. And from him it passed into the possession of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who made it in 1571, in the reign of Elizabeth, a hospital for twelve men, called brethren, and a master, who must be a clergyman of the Church of England; the preference being given to the Vicar of St. Mary’s if he offered himself for the post. The appointment of these brethren is vested in the heirs of the founder, now represented by Lord D’Lisle and Dudley, of Penhurst Place, in the county of Kent, who is a descendant of Mary, the sister of Robert Dudley, who married Sir Henry Sidney, of the same place.
The brethren elected to this foundation must, according to the statutes, be either tenants or servants of the founder or his heirs, and resident in the county of Warwick, or soldiers of the Sovereign, more especially those who had been wounded on active service; the latter to be chosen from the parishes of Warwick, Kenilworth, and Stratford–on–Avon, or from those of Wooton–under–Edge and Erlingham, in the county of Gloucester.