[499] St Leonard's of Launceston is an interesting example of the way in which the old hospitals for lepers came to be used for the poor.
Philip and Mary granted the hospital to the Corporation for the use of leprous and infirm people.
James I. repeats this grant and adds that "for default of leprous persons in the hospital aforesaid that it be and shall be lawful" for the mayor and aldermen etc. to receive the rents for the support of the poor. Char. Com. Rep. 32, Pt. 1, p. 406.
1610. King James I. refounded St Edmund's of Gateshead. Sykes's Local Records, I. p. 84.
St Thomas's and St Catherine's, York, also came under the control of the city. Drake's Eboracum, pp. 246, 247.
St Mary Magdalen, King's Lynn, was originally founded partly for lepers; its revenues were taken away in the time of Edward VI., but a few of the poor were maintained there by the Corporation. Its lands were restored by James I. and it was placed under the care of the town rulers. Mackerell, Lynn Regis, p. 194.
The property of Trinity Hospital, Bristol, since the time of Queen Elizabeth has been conveyed in trust to members of the Corporation of the city of Bristol. Reports of the Charity Commissioners, VI. p. 506.
[500] Letters Patent, 1 Edw. VI. No. 54. Charters, Oaths and Charities of the City of Norwich, p. 50.
[501] Charity Com. Rep. 7, pp. 204, 205, 234.
[502] There were endowments for at least ten almshouses in Hereford in 1642.