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THE

ANTIQUARY:

A MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE STUDY

OF THE PAST.

Instructed by the Antiquary times,
He must, he is, he cannot but be wise.

TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act ii., sc. 3.

VOL. XIX.

JANUARY—JUNE.

LONDON: ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER Row.

NEW YORK DAVID G. FRANCIS, 17, ASTOR PLACE.

:

1889.

DA20
A63

273505

ANFOR

RECORDS OF ST. THOMAS'S HOSPITAL.

The Antiquary.

JULY, 1889.

Records of St. Thomas's Hospital.

BY W. RENDLE, F.R.C.S.

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ARY

That was; however, anticipated, by its forfeiture as a religious institution in 1538. The presentation. of Thirleby was to prepare for the intended forfeiture. This is referred to in Rymer, vol xiv. 652 "Concerning a presentation to the hospital, Thomas Thurleby, clerk, has the King's letters patent of presentation to the hospital of Thomas Bekket, in Suthwerke, in the county of Surrey, vulgarly called Thomas Bekket's spyttell, in the county of Surrey, by the death of Richard Mabbot, clerk, the last warden or master of that hospital, now vacant, and belonging in full right to our presentation; and the letters are directed to the rev. father in Christ S. Bishop of Winchester, or, in his absence, to his vicargeneral in spiritual matters. Witness the King at Westminster. Per the King himself." Now, the name given, was the parish of the hospital of St. Thomas, in Southwark. Through the well-known appeal of Bishop Ridley, King Edward VI. gave and granted the royal hospitals to the city, and the rich citizens behaved munificently, as they have mostly done all along. In 1556 Sir William Hewitt was president of St. Thomas's, and Richard Grafton was high treasurer of all the hospitals. Sir William Hewitt had lived on London Bridge, and had served all the great city offices. A well-known incident had occurred at his house on the bridge. Edward Osborne was his apprentice at the time. His master's child had fallen from a window into the river, the boy-apprentice jumped after the child and saved her, and in after-time became her husband. He also, like his master, at length served in all the great city offices, became a great merchant, and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1584. He was as Mr. Osborne one of the governors St. Thomas's, and on November 5, 1571, was choisen unto the office as treasurer with Mr. Alderman Woodruffe, late the treasurer." The father of this Alderman Woodruffe, David, was "the cruel sheriff" who went with the martyr Rogers to his death. "Thou art an heretic," he said to Rogers, taking an interest in him as he went along. said Rogers, "will be seen at the day of judgment." "I will never pray for thee," said the sheriff; and so they proceeded to the end, to the stake at Smithfield, in 1555.

HE earlier records of the meetings of the governors of St. Thomas's Hospital are full of particulars clearly, and in a very interesting way, showing the state of society at the time. But first let me notice that the hospital built in 1228, on the appeal of Bishop Peter, had, in 1507, become dilapidated and insufficient. In a map prefixed to my Old Southwark and its People, which map is, indeed, a literal text, from which that book is, so to speak, preached-in this map of 1542 the position of the new or 1507 hospital is shown. We have accounts of the work and " expenses done by Sir Richard Richardson" (sir as a priest), master of St. Thomas's Hospital, purchase that is of the void ground called the Faucon, and afterwards the Tenys Place and "closhbanc," or closhbank, upon which ground the master hath builded a new hospital for poor men." The Faucon was a large place of entertainment close to London Bridge, in Southwark, involving skittles or closheys; the closhbank, as it probably was, implying a bank or boundary for the wandering skittles or closheys. The expenses, cost, etc., of the new building amounted to £326 os. 51d. Wages were 4d. to 6d. the day, or even 8d. We may reckon in modern value that this £326 represented £3,000 and more.

What with the lapse of time, and the destructive changes of Henry's period in quasi-ecclesiastical foundations, the hospital of 1507 was partly destroyed or worn out

VOL. XX.

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