STATUS OF LEPERS.
The rank and status of any one, was no guarantee against attacks from this dire disorder, with its fearful ravages. Had the victims been confined, as it is generally thought, to those who dwelt amid squalor, dirt and vice, in close and confined dens, veritable hot beds for rearing and propagating disease of every kind; we should not be surprised, but should be entitled to assume, that to such circumstances, in a very great measure might the origin be expected to be found; but, when we find, that not only was the scourge a visitant here, but, that it numbered amongst the afflicted, members of some of the most illustrious households in this kingdom, aye, even the august monarchs themselves, the source from whence Elephantiasis Græcorum—the malady not being contagious—first originated must be sought for elsewhere.
First amongst our ancient and illustrious families, we find—if he may be so classed—the case of S. Finian, who died 675 or 695[m].
A nobleman of the South of England, whose name unfortunately is not recorded, is reputed to have been miraculously cured at the tomb of S. Cuthbert, at Durham, 1080[n].
A daughter of Mannasseh Bysset, a rich Wiltshire gentleman, sewer[o] to Henry II., being a Leper, founded the Lazar House at Maiden Bradley, dedicated to the honour of the Blessed Virgin, “for poore leprous women” and gave to it her share of the town of Kidderminster, c. 1160. Mannasseh Bysset founded the Lazar House dedicated in honour of S. James, Doncaster, for women, c. 1160.
The celebrated Constance, Duchess of Brittany, who was allied to the royal families of both England and Scotland, being a grand-daughter of Malcolm III. of Scotland, and the English Princess Margaret Atheling, and also a descendant of a natural daughter of Henry I. She died of Leprosy in the year 1201[p].
In 1203 in the King’s Court, a dispute was heard respecting a piece of land in Sudton, Kent, between two kinswomen—Mabel, daughter of William Fitz-Fulke, and Alicia, the widow of Warine Fitz-Fulke. Among the pleas, it was urged by Alicia, that Mabel had a brother, and that his right to the land must exclude her claim, whereupon Mabel answered that her brother was a Leper[q].
It was certified to King Edward I. in 1280, that Adam of Gangy, deceased, of the county of Northumberland, holding land of the King in chief, was unable to repair to the King’s presence to do homage, being struck with the Leprosy[r].
In the reign of Richard II. c. 1380, William, son of Robert Blanchmains, being a Leper, founded the Lazar House, dedicated in honour of S. Leonard, outside the town of Leicester, to the north[].
Richard Orange, a gentleman of noble parentage, and Mayor of Exeter in 1454, was a Leper. In spite of his great wealth he submitted himself to a residence in the Lazar House of S. Mary Magdalene in that city, where he died, and was buried in the chapel attached. A mutilated inscription still remains over the spot where he is interred[t].