The fortunes of the Hospital in the middle fifteenth century can only be judged by inference, but there can be little doubt that it continued to be useful, and that gradually its functions as a place for the cure of the needy sick became more developed. The co-operation of nursing sisters must have also become familiar to the London community by this time. The brethren and sisters had pursued their avocation in tending and in nursing the infirm from very early days in the history of the community of St. Mary both in Navarre and in England. As the religious house became more distinctly a hospital their services must have been in constantly increasing request.
The Establishment of the Fraternity of St. Mary Roncevall (1475).
The year 1475 marks the official commencement of the last stage of the existence of the Hospital. In that year a royal charter of Edward IV records the “foundation of a fraternity or perpetual gild of a master, two wardens and the brethren and sisters who may wish to be of the same in the Chapel of St. Mary Rounsidevall by Charyng Crosse, and of a perpetual chantry of one chaplain to celebrate divine service at the High Altar in the said chapel.” In 1478 a grant in mortmain is recorded to the Master, Wardens, Brethren and Sisters of the Fraternity of the said Chapel or Hospital, and of its property, revenues and privileges, for the sustenance of the chaplain and two additional clergy who now seem to have been required for the services of the chapel, and of “the poor people flocking to the Hospital.”
In the years following, the affairs of the Hospital seem to have been administered with energy and prudence, for we have records in 1494, 1495 and 1496 of legal proceedings concerning the property and privileges of the Hospital, in which the master and wardens vigorously upheld their position and successfully defended their rights. The litigation, which seems to have gone on intermittently chiefly for the recovery of the ancient possessions of the Hospital, appears to have been brought to a conclusion in the year 1510, when, in the Mastership of Laurence Long, the fraternity paid the sum of 20s. into the hanaper for the confirmation of the various charters granted to the fraternity by the King.
Again there seems to have been a period of comparative calm and, no doubt, of successful performance of the duties of the Hospital. The fraternity may have even thought that the storm which burst over the Church in the time of Henry VIII would leave them unharmed on account of the fulfilment of their useful functions in the community, for so late as the year 1542, while William Jenyns was Master, a record can be read giving evidence of their continuing interest and careful management of their affairs. In this year they obtained certain property and a wharf in the parish of St. Margaret, in respect of rents to be paid from a tenement called the “Shippe” and certain lands in the Parish of St. Clement Danes without Temple Bar. This, however, is the last deed recorded of the ancient community, with the exception of the final act which was very soon to take place.
Dissolution of the Fraternity by Henry VIII (1544).
The policy of the King, enforced in many cases by the greed of his agents and other members of the Court, could not leave the Hospital unscathed, and not even the charitable deeds of the fraternity were sufficient to save them from dispersion. The grief with which the master, wardens and members of the fraternity assembled to ratify their last official act in a corporate capacity may be conceived, and it is possible to some faint extent to imagine the feelings of despair and of bitter irony uppermost in the minds of the brethren and sisters when they heard the words of the Deed of Surrender read aloud. In this document the master, wardens, brethren and sisters of the fraternity declared that they are “specially influenced at the present time by divers causes and considerations to give and concede by this Charter to the most excellent and invincible prince, our Lord Henry VIII, by the Grace of God, King of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith and Supreme Head of the Church in England and Ireland,” their Church, Hospital, and all other property and privileges. The affixing of their Common Seal to this document concludes the chequered history of the Convent of St. Mary Roncevall at Charing Cross (November 11, 1544).
Though the remaining members of the Community were deprived of their offices and ejected from the home which they had so long possessed at Charing Cross, their lot was not so hard as in the case of many others driven into the world at this time. A pittance from their income was left. There may be read in a book of payments of Edward VI, under the heading “Pencions out of Monasteries” that the guardians of Roncevall were allotted the munificent annual income of 6l. 13s. 4d. Very oddly in this document the larger sum of 8l. is entered and crossed out in favour of the smaller amount mentioned. The amount of the pension was measured with parsimonious exactness. Quarterly payments of 33 shillings and 4 pence are entered as being paid to the few surviving members of the fraternity so late as at Christmas, the Annunciation, Midsummer and Michaelmas, 1551 and 1552.
Fig. 10.—The common seal of the Fraternity of St. Mary Roncevall.
Fig. 11.—From the imperfect impression attached to the Deed of Surrender.