Lord Burghley’s Bedehouse was founded by the great Lord Treasurer in 1597. It occupies the site of the old Hospital of St. John and St. Thomas at the south end of the town bridge.
Fryer’s Almshouses, Truesdale’s Hospital, Snowden’s Hospital (or St. John’s Callis), Williamson’s Hospital, and St. Peter’s Hospital (or All Saints’ Callis), of which a mere enumeration must suffice, combine to make a formidable list of such charitable institutions, which speaks well for the philanthropy and public spirit of past generations of Stamfordians.
After this somewhat lengthy architectural digression it is time to resume the thread of Stamford’s general history where we left it at the beginning of the church-building period. In 1206 the manorial rights of Stamford were conveyed by the King to the Norman noble, William, Earl Warren, whose name figures largely in the early history of the town. He made considerable additions to the castle, and, according to tradition, was responsible for instituting the famous “bull running” in the river meadows below the Castle, which became a popular annual celebration. The story goes that Earl Warren observed one day in the water meadows an infuriated bull, which made its way into the town, scattering and attacking in its wild career those of the inhabitants who were unlucky enough to come in its way. The spectacle appears to have appealed to Warren’s sporting instincts, and he thereupon made over the meadow to the butchers of the town on condition that they provided a bull annually on 13th November for a repetition of the pastime. It was not until 1839, after a keen struggle between the public and the authorities lasting for several years, that this ignoble “sport” was suppressed.
Earl Warren’s arms (checquy argent and azure), impaling the royal arms of England, are borne by the borough of Stamford to this day, as can be seen by a glance at the shield on the front of the Town Hall on St. Mary’s Hill.
In 1256 Henry III. granted the first charter to the town, and we may, perhaps, pause here for a moment to consider the municipal history of the borough, which has been a long and honourable one. Edward IV., in the first year of his reign, bestowed a second charter on the town by which the chief alderman was raised to a position of exceptional privilege and responsibility, being within his jurisdiction the immediate lieutenant of the King. The next charter dates from the reign of Charles II., and in this the chief alderman is for the first time styled “Mayor.” The last charter was granted by James II. The early archives of Stamford perished, like so many other valuable possessions, in the Lancastrian onslaught upon the town in 1461, but the subsequent municipal deeds and documents, including the 1461 charter, have been carefully preserved. The Stamford corporation, moreover, possess exceptionally fine regalia, including a small and very beautiful silver mace believed to be of the time of Edward IV., a larger mace dated 1660, and a third of majestic size presented in 1678. The last, which bears the initials of King Charles II., was given by Charles Bertie, who was one of the members representing Stamford in Parliament. He also presented the corporation with a valuable silver punch-bowl, capable of containing five gallons. Two additional silver cups were the gifts of other donors in 1650 and 1658.
In 1266 a situation arose in connection with Stamford which forms a curious chapter in her annals. Following on the revocation by Henry III. of a licence under which a number of students from Oxford and Cambridge had established themselves at Northampton, a migration of these young men to Stamford took place, and their numbers being increased by a further secession from Oxford in 1333, there grew up in the town a species of rudimentary university which at length incurred the jealousy of the older universities. Both parties appealed to the King, with the result that the Stamfordians were ordered to disperse. It was not, however, till some of the more recalcitrant of the students had been removed in custody to Oxford that the royal mandate could effect its purpose. It is believed that up to comparatively recent years the undergraduates of Oxford and Cambridge were called upon to register a definite undertaking that they would abstain from studying at Stamford. The scene of this episode in Stamford’s history was on the south side of St. Paul’s Street, the site being now occupied by a girls’ school, still known as Brazenose, and standing where the old Brazenose College of the Oxford seceders formerly stood until demolished in 1668. The famous Brazenose knocker, which the Oxonians are said to have carried with them from their Oxford hall, remained behind at Stamford until late in the nineteenth century, when the authorities of Brazenose College, Oxford, purchased the premises and bore the precious relic in triumph back to its original home on the banks of the Isis.
In 1293 Queen Eleanor’s body rested here on its way from Harby to Westminster, and a cross (of which nothing now remains to mark the site) was erected on the western side of the town, near St. Clement’s Gate, as was done at each point where the cortège halted on its journey.
In 1363 the Castle and manor of Stamford were given by Edward III. to his son Edward, Duke of York. The connection thus established naturally led the inhabitants to espouse the Yorkist cause in the Wars of the Roses which followed in the next century, and they thus brought upon themselves the calamities which have already been referred to in dealing with the churches in the town. In 1461 the Lancastrian army, marching towards St. Albans under Sir Andrew Trollope, attacked, captured and well nigh demolished the town, at the same time destroying all the municipal archives. Ten years later, however, occurred what is known as the “Lincolnshire Rising,” which ended in the defeat of the Lancastrians near Empingham, a few miles north of Stamford.[91] In this fight the Stamfordians by their courage earned for themselves such distinction that King Edward IV. marked his appreciation of their services by granting permission for the royal lions to be placed on the coat-of-arms of Stamford side by side with the arms of Earl Warren.
Of the events of the next half century we will only mention the re-establishment and re-endowment of the old Grammar School (which is known to have been in existence for over two centuries previously) by William Radcliffe in 1530, the benefits of whose munificence are enjoyed to this day by the boys of the town and district.