Some Early Hospitals in Wales and the Border

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

John Cule. National Library of Wales journal. 1977, Winter Volume XX/2

Extracted onto the pages of GENUKI with the kind permission of the National Library of Wales

This is a complete extract of this article (Gareth Hicks May 2003)

---

Early hospital development in Wales.

A hospital is not a place devoted only to the cure of disease. This is an idealistic view even if 'cure' is interpreted in its broadest sense of a course of medical treatment. Many modern hospitals, like the earlier ones, are designed in whole or in part for the loving care of the infirm in body or in mind, for whom alleviation of their lot is the most that can be expected. Any institution designed for the support of the elderly, the mentally defective or the physically crippled is in itself a hospital and has to take some provision for their health in the prophylaxis and treatment of intercurrent disease, as well as the care of the final illness. The custodians of such places, even without formal medical education, will develop practical medical and nursing skills.

In the natural history of hospitals, the beginnings are to be found in responses to needs manifested by those sections of the community for whom the State or the Church assumed a particular responsibility. The State learned to care for its soldiers, the Church for its monks and pilgrims. The wounded were given shelter and treatment; the sick monk was tended in his monastery. The pilgrim was likely to need at least first aid for the afflictions of the journey. In such social groups, the occasional but inevitable necessities of medical and nursing care could be anticipated by planning. The institutional care of the sick developed from such places, where at first a more general hospitality was given.

In a distinct class is the care prescribed by the State in the early Irish, Welsh and Saxon laws for individuals injured by criminal acts or sometimes by accident. For such, domiciliary care seems to have been the rule prior to the ninth century and possibly later. An individual citizen, when sick or wounded, was thus generally cared for in his own home. In later ages, the time came when the Church or the State provided a communal service for the needs of the population at large.

Wales had been introduced to military hospitals by the Roman legions, for which there is evidence in the Second Legion's hospital at Caerleon and possibly for smaller ones at Pen Llystyn and Gelligaer. From the end of the occupation until the twelfth century there is no evidence of any comparable foundation. What provision the State made for the care of the injured, shown in the earliest surviving laws of Wales compiled in the tenth century, would seem to have been in the patient's own home or possibly in that of a better placed relative. It could be conjectured that it was in a house under the care of the mediciner, for there was probably a parallel in still earlier Welsh law with the custom of folog nothrusa of eighth century Irish Law. Then, if the victim of an assault was alive and the Irish leech declared him curable, the person responsible for his injury was obliged to arrange for his removal, dingbail, from his own home to another house suitable for the purpose of nursing him back to health under the leech's directions. Was........................

....................this 'sanctuary' sometimes in the leech's own house? In the later system of tincisin, the victim was nursed in his own home where food, nursing care and medical attendance was supplied at the expense of the injurer. In the earlier form of othrus, the obligation for removal depended on the Irish leech's verdict on the gravity of the injury. There is some indication in the Irish laws that in doubtful cases of recovery, the decision for removal could be delayed until the ninth day, when the probable outcome would be clearer. The system made provision for nursing as well as relief of his own household of the burden of his maintenance. Wherever it was, the regulations for his care were enumerated in detail. There is an obscure passage in Irish law which suggests that there was also a penalty payable for failure to collect the patient at the 'conclusion of sick maintenance'. It may sometimes have been more to the patient's liking to stay, or for his relatives just to let him stay, where he was! 1

Amongst the first recognizable precursors of the hospital to appear were communal places of shelter for the elderly, the infirm and the sick. Their inspiration was religious rather than medical, and the sites frequently in or near a religious community. The motive was caritas, Christian mercy, the sacred duty incumbent upon all believers, and particularly upon bishops, who in their pre-Norman vow of consecration promised to show mercy and kindness to the poor, to the pilgrim and to all in want. The teaching of the Church encouraged the building of shelters, alms-houses and hospitals with the promise to the donor of a heavenly reward. Many were endowed and built by wealthy patrons, some by the nobility and others by the sovereign himself. In Cardiff the burgesses took upon themselves the task by building a leper hospital in the fourteenth century. And the Church frequently blessed and consecrated the efforts in the names of the saints.

The English Church had shown an interest in medicine since Theodore had founded his school at Canterbury, a place where such things as poetry and astronomy as well as calculations of the church calendar could be studied . 2 Saint Aldhelm, himself a student there, said that medicine was included in the curriculum 3 and Saint John of Beverly quoted Archbishop Theodore's own words in advising against the practice of bleeding when the light of the moon and the pull of the tides was increasing . 4 Both the Venerable Bede and bishop Cynehard of Winchester had medical libraries, which included herbal manuscripts amongst other medical works such as those in the compilations of Oribasius and Paul of Aegina. 5

Inside the monasteries special provision was enjoined for the sick and infirm brethren. Detailed rules were laid down for the conduct of the infirmaries, where they would have recourse when their strength began to fail, and therefore in the nature of things would frequently be suffering from some disease or other as well.

Places of shelter were built for the pilgrims of the Middle Ages whose stay might become extended from sickness as well as from fatigue. At Strood near Rochester in England, 'the poor, weak, infirm and impotent, as well as neighbouring inhabitants as travellers from distant places' were cared for 'until they.............

...................die or depart healed'. 6 The infirmaries originally designed for the care of their own monks gradually extended their role to the surrounding countryside and were then built amongst the conventual buildings outside the cloister to care for the lay brethren and the tenants. 7

Citizens who later followed the ecclesiastical example and founded charitable institutions, introduced a certain specificity into the foundation statutes, inspired by a particular need or a particular sympathy. In this way came lazar houses for lepers,# provision for the insane, and lying in hospitals for confinements, often with merciful provision for the care of the orphan if the mother should die.

These earliest infirmaries and pilgrim shelters provided either more or less medical and nursing help, and of better or worse quality dependent upon the facilities available and the extent to which the local monks were interested. At this distance of time it is not possible to know exactly what went on in each and every one of them. But whether the building was called a hospitium, hospice, hospital, infirmary, pilgrim shelter or, in Welsh ysbyty, ( hospit-ty) the conceptual purpose was to render that duty of mercy to their neighbour in so far as lay within their power. There are very many places called ysbyty, spite or spittal in Wales, of which the etymological root is the latin hospes, which serves equally for host and guest, the givers and receivers of caritas. The pietas of the houses of pity and the eleemosyne of the almshouses carry the same meaning of charitable love or Christian mercy. Environmentally they provided the opportunity for the development of medical care, the response to which depended upon circumstance.

In Wales much of the evidence for the beginnings of hospital care of the sick and needy has to be sought in the rules of the religious establishments that covered the country in the twelfth century.

The picturesque Augustinian priory at Llanthony in Monmouth, was founded by a Norman knight, who, forsaking the military life, went to the valley of Nant Honddu as an anchorite. This William de Lacey was joined in 1103 by Ernisius, at one time chaplain to Henry the First's queen Matilda. By about 1118 the small community they attracted there became a house of Augustinian canons. 8 The Black Canons were all priests, who by the end of the twelfth century, here and at their other houses in Carmarthen and Haverfordwest, had achieved a great bond of sympathy with the local populations. Many of the canons bore Welsh names. Llan Nant Honddu later known as Llanthony, became a centre of learning from which more mediaeval manuscripts have survived than from any other Welsh monastery. 9 The priory did not survive the dissolution, and in 1538 both Llanthony Prima in Wales and Llanthony Secunda near Gloucester were surrendered.

Geoffrey of Henlaw a twelfth century prior of Llanthony, who became bishop of St. David's, was 'skilled in medicine' and professionally consulted by Archbishop Hubert Walter. 10 The observances of his order as set out by the Augustinian.......

[#For an account of leper houses in Wales and the Border see Cule, J., Transactions of the British Society for the History of Pharmacy, 1970, Vol. I, No. I, pp. 29-58.]

Figure I

 

Figure 2

 

....................priory of St. Giles & St. Andrew at Barnwell, Cambridge indicated the duties of those who had charge of the sick, and guided them in their attitudes and in the common herbs they should have available for emergency:

The Mastery of the Farmery then, who ought to have the care of the sick, ought to be gentle, kind, compassionate to the sick, and willing to gratify their needs with affectionate sympathy. It should rarely or never happen that he has not ginger, cinnamon, peony, and the like, ready in his cupboard, so as to be able to render prompt assistance to the sick if stricken by a sudden malady.

The Master of the Farmery was required to have a servant to wait upon the sick and upon whom fell many of the nursing duties:

He is to get their food ready at the proper time, show their water to the physician, and take a careful note of how they ought to diet themselves ... He must endure without complaint the foulness of sick persons, whether in vomiting or in other matters; and when they die he must ... get their bodies ready for burial.

Medical care was mainly in the hands of the religious and no secular was allowed to enter the 'farmery' without both the leave of the president and the consent of the sick patient. Women were banned and thus the care was entirely male. Secular physicians had to obtain permission either to visit the sick or to take meals with them. The rules showed an insight into the categories of those who reported sick and recognized in a most tolerant way a group well known to practising doctors throughout the ages. The strains of a cloistered life brought familiar problems.

Brethren sometimes fall into a state of weak health from the irksomeness of cloister life, or from long continuance of silence; sometimes from fatigue in the quire or extension of fasting; sometimes from sleeplessness or overwork. Some are afflicted with a sense of heaviness in the head, and pain in the stomach from sitting up too late with guests, drinking or eating too much ... On account of such an attack they ought not to go into the Farmery, or to stay there, because they do not require medicine, but only repose and comfort.

With more definite signs or symptoms of physical illness they were advised to seek admission to the farmery:

There is another class of sick persons who suffer from attacks of fever, tertian or quotidian; intolerable toothaches; sharp gouty spasms; affections of the brain, the eyes, the throat, the spleen, the liver, and pains in divers parts of the body. But as they can speak and walk, they ought to go to the Warden ... who will give them leave to enter the Farmery ... As they cannot take the same food as thc rest of the brethren, the Master of the Farmery is to treat them with special indulgence; he should consult a physician, provide them with baths, draughts, electuaries, and all other things conducive to speedy convalescence.

In illness of acute onset, such as a stroke, when the patient was rendered helpless, he was to be taken at once to the farmery. In a predominantly spiritual atmosphere it was imperative that anyone regarded as seriously ill should have heed taken for his soul, although the material need for the services of a physician was stressed:

Some, whether asleep or awake, are struck with illness so suddenly that they lose the strength of their limbs in an instant ... They should be carried to the Farmery at once ... The Prelate should frequently see one who has been taken ill in this way about the health of his soul. 11

The infirmary hall and chapel for the old and sick canons probably lay within the walls of the thirteenth century St David's Church, to the south of the priory. The church buildings include domestic as well as ecclesiastical features. 12

The great Cistercian abbey of Strata Florida (Ystrad Fflur) near Pontrhydfendigaid in Cardiganshire was founded by Henry the Second in 1164. Set in desolate splendour amongst the Cambrian Mountains, not far from the source of the River Teifi, it was admirably placed to fulfil the ideals of self dependence and austerity of that order. The Cistercians in their resemblance to the earlier Welsh saints appealed much more to the native Welsh than did the black habited Benedictines, whose introduction was associated with the Norman conqueror, and whose cells and priories lay in the shadow of the great castles. Sometimes, as at Ewenni, they seemed almost as heavily fortified. The early Cistercians had entered under a similar Norman cloud via Tintern (1131), Margam (1147), Neath (1147) and Basingwerk (1147). As a result, these never had that sympathy of the population won by the later wave of White Monks, who landed to found Whitland abbey in west Wales in 1140, and whose daughter houses included Strata Florida (1164), Strata Marcella (1170) and Cwm-Hir (1176). They and their own daughter houses were liberally endowed, even enjoying the patronage of the native princes. 13

The lonely house of Strata Florida played an important part in the chronicling of the history of Wales, continuing the record of Brut y Tywysogyon and Annales Cambriae, although the latter unfortunately has not survived in its original form. In its situation, care of the aged and sick brethren was a necessity as well as a Christian duty. There were also lepers to support. 14 By the time of Leland's visit, some short time before 1540, he found 'the Fratry and Infirmatori be now mere ruines'. 15

The Firmar House of Strata Florida received mention in 1291. 16 After its destruction it may be that Ysbyty Ystrad Meurig, some two miles distant, took over its functions. Ysbyty Ystwyth and Ysbyty Ystrad Meurig possibly had their origins as hospices for travellers. Morfa Bychan on the coast has a hospice with a well timbered roof, which is now the lounge bar of a caravan site. 17 The abbey was at one time a place of pilgrimage for the sick, who sought the help of its holy chalice reputed to have healing powers. 18 And it took its share of the dying, who sought admission as an 'insurance' for their soul's salvation. In 1201 Gruffydd..............

.................. ap Rhys died there, 'after having taken upon him the religious habit', to be followed by his wife Maud, who was buried there in a monk's cowl in 1209. Gutun Owain, about 1480, sought the seclusion of the abbey.

It is probable that arrangements for the care of the sick were also made at Cwm-hir and at Strata Marcella, where the founder Owain Cyfeiliog went to die, and in 1197 be buried, 'having taken upon him the habit of religion'. 19 Strata Florida's colony at Llantarnam (1179) had a Tavern House to serve its shrine at Penrhys and this great house also had colonies at Aberconwy (1186) and Llanllyr (c. 1180) which was for women. Strata Marcella established a daughter house at Valle Crucis (1201) and another for women at Llanllugan (before 1236). Cwm-hir had a dependency at Cymer (1199). 13

The less popular Margam, like the others, admitted the infirm and also corrodians, who in reality were purchasing an annuity in the form of board and lodging. In 1200 'a blinded hostage, Canaythen, gave his land in Resolven to the abbey, became a lay brother, and ''lived most securely all the days of his life'' '. 20 Geoffrey Sturmi made a grant and the monastery undertook to (and probably did) 'receive him into their fraternity when he became infirm'. 21 In the plan of the abbey drawn by the Cambrian Archaeological Association a small building is tentatively described as the infirmary.

Tintern had a Secular Farmer, one mile west of the monastery, above the Angidy valley, which was developed as a separate manor by 1140, and later described as a grange. 22 This would, at least nominally, appear to have provided some form of external hospital care.

The custom of admitting the dying, whose wealth might then accrue to the abbey was not without its critics. Giraldus Cambrensis accused the Cistercian House of Dore somewhat bitterly of having given tonsure and hood to two rich ladies (one of them the mother of John of Monmouth, founder of its daughter house of Grace Dieu) and of carrying off the dying 'by corrupt persuasion' to the monastery from nearby Ewyas Harold and Bacton, in 'wheeled carriages and other vehicles'. 23 But Giraldus was no friend of the Cistercians.

But although motives might be suspect it was apparently, basically a respectable custom. Caedmon, the Anglo-Saxon poet monk, 'when the time of his death drew near, he felt the onset of physical weakness for fourteen days, but not seriously enough to prevent his walking or talking the whole time. Close by there was a house to which all who were sick or likely to die were taken. Towards nightfall on the day when he was to depart this life, Caedmon asked his attendant to prepare a resting-place for him in this house' . 24

The Benedictines never achieved the sort of expansion made by the later Cistercians and remained confined to the south and south east with scarcely any recruits from the local Welsh.

There were two hospitals founded in Monmouth, a part of Wales where the power of the Welsh princes fluctuated even more than elsewhere and which may account for the gift of one of the houses, the hospital of the Holy Trinity to the .............

................. Benedictines. Both were founded about 1240 A.D. by John of Monmouth. The other, dedicated to St John was given by the founder's son to the abbot and monks of Salmur [Saumur], an alien house to whom the monks of Monmouth Priory owed allegiance. Many were probably themselves foreigners from that area. 25,26

The monks of St. Dogmael's Abbey in Pembrokeshire had much in common with the Cistercians who sought to re-introduce the purity of the original rule of St. Benedict. It was a daughter house of the French abbey of Tiron, lying between Chartres and Le Mans, that had its inspiration from the Benedictine St. Bernard of Abbeville. The 'Congregation' of Tiron, unhappy at the extent to which the observance of the rule had fallen, began to live apart. Although never finally forsaking the allegiance to St. Benedict, they distinguished themselves by changing the black habit for grey. The monastery of St. Dogmaels or Cemais was founded about 1115 by Robert FitzMartin, Lord of Cemais on the site where an older Welsh monastic community, a clas, had once been. In the latter half of the thirteenth century, an infirmary was added as a separate building, about 45 feet to the east of the abbey. When the abbey was suppressed in 1536 it had only an abbot and eight monks. 27

On the site of the Hospital of the Blessed David, Swansea, Glamorgan there stands a hostelry known as the Cross Keys Inn. Henry de Gower's Charter of Foundation and Endowment of his hospital at Swansea, dated 1332 A.D., established here a hospital for blind, decrepit or infirm priests and other poor men. 28

The seal of the hospital shows St. David in the act of benediction, with the surround words Sigillum Coe [Commune] Dom Beati David.

On September 12th, 1332, in the sixth year of the reign of Edward III, two chaplains were sought:

Licence for the alienation in mortmain by Master Griffin de Cauntynton and William Mey to Henry de Gower, bishop of St. David's, of the manors of Clementiston, Nant Gove and Lettardston, a mill, three carucates of land, 40s. of rent, and a moiety of a mill, in Lawadeyne and Pembidiang, to find two chaplains to celebrate divine service daily in the Hospital of St. David, Sweyneseye, for the soul of the bishop after his death, and for the souls of Master David, late bishop, and the faithful departed.
By fine of 20l. 29

In 1334 provision was made for a further grant in support of the hospital:

Sept. 24: Licence for the alienation in mortmain by Henry de Gower, bishop of St. David's, to the master and chaplains of the hospital of St. David, Sweynese, of seven messuages, 30 acres of land and 44s. 6d. of rent, in Pembydiaug and Kylvey, which are not held in chief and, exclusive of the rent, are of the yearly value of 7s. 6d. as appears by inquisition made by Philip de Clannewone, supplying the place of Gilbert Talbot, justice of South Wales: to be held in satisfaction of 60s of the £30 yearly of land, rent and advowsons of churches in Wales, which the bishop has the king's licence to alienate to six chaplains to celebrate divine service daily for the souls of the kings of England, the bishop and the faithful departed, as he should appoint. 30

Figure 3

 

Figure 4

In 1361 a life tenure of the wardenship of the hospital at Swansea was granted when 'the king presented his clerk, John Thorn, to the Hospital of St. David at Swansea in 1361' despite says Glanmor Williams 'the stipulation in its foundation statutes that its warden must always be resident . . .' 31 There seems no evidence that he was not:

July 24. Easthampstead. Grant for life to the king's clerk Richard de Thorn of the wardenship of the hospital of Swaneseye in Wales which David Martyn, deceased, had. (By letter of secret seal) 32

By 1379 the economic effects of the Black Death, at least in part, affected the spiritual and temporal revenues 'by the changes of the times much diminished and evidently insufficient for the wants of those now dwelling therein'. Bishop Houghton appropriated the parish church of Oystermouth to their support. 33 Times must still have been hard for the Warden and Master to attempt to hold back £40 of an inheritance in 1382; an undignified act for 'one of Gower's most ambitious foundations'.

May 13. Richard Colet, warden and master [of the hospital] of St. David, Swynesye, for not appearing to render £40 to Roger Wroth, John atte Ree, John Maudeleyn, and Thomas Thurgrym, executors, of the will of Roger de Whytynton, chaplain. 34

John Fayrwood, the master in 1401 was 'parson of the churches of Sweynesey, Oystermouth and Llangwk annexed to the hospital'. Part of the endowments of Penrice and Llanrhidian, held by the Hospitallers of St. John and Slebech, was made over to the hospital. 35,36

By 1419, the hospital passed to William Gower, Rector of Cheriton long after the resignation of John Fayrwood:

6 Id. Jan. 1419. To Bishop of St. Davids. Mandate to commit to William Gower, rector of the parish church of Chyreton (i.e. Cheriton) in the diocese of St. Davids, B.C.L., the poor hospital of St. David the Bishop, Sweynsey, in the said diocese, value not exceeding 40 marks, wont to be governed by secular clerks only, so long void by the resignation, made before Edward Warcham, clerk, of the diocese of Norwich, notary public, and witnesses, of John Fayrwood, that its commission has by the Lateran statutes lapsed to the apostolic see; notwithstanding that he holds the said church, value not exceeding 15 marks. 37

The archbishop of St. Davids, reporting to Canterbury in 1665 had to state 'Swansey. St. David's Diocese. Nothing of any Hospitall now to be found, but only some darke records of an Hospitall and College long since at Swansey, but now wholly lost.' 38 Altogether the hospital had been governed by five wardens, from the first John de Acum in 1334 to the last Richard Rawlins in 1545, 39 shortly before it was dissolved in the first year of the reign of Edward VI, 1547, and granted to Sir George Herbert.

In 1950, Messrs Worthington, Ltd., commissioned the architect Victor E. Ward to report on the state of their building, the Cross Keys Inn, which was causing them some concern. As a result, it was decided to restore, in so far as was possible, some of the original features during the partial rebuilding that was found necessary. In 1959, further reconditioning was undertaken under the supervision of O.S. Portsmouth, who records

Ample traces of a substantial building of the early fourteenth century survive, which almost certainly formed part of the Hospital founded by Bishop de Gower in 1332. This building is represented by the north end wall of the north wing with its ground, first and attic floor windows well made in Sutton stone in early English style, all but the attic window having cusped heads. These three windows are now clearly visible from Princess Way. This north wall, together with the adjacent side walls of the north wing and straight (pre-bay) wall in the St. Mary Street frontage was constructed in superior roughly-coursed stonework, laid in good lime mortar. All this walling, which is approximately three feet thick, appears to belong to the same building as the fourteenth century windows, . . . That other windows of this first period had once existed here was proved by the discovery of several dressed blocks of Sutton stone built into Period II [early 17th cent.] walls and floors ...
There was good evidence that this early building extended westward, nearer St. Mary's Church than at present. 40

Portsmouth mentions the possibility that there were some major alterations carried out some time after the initial fourteenth century building and before the substantial alterations of the seventeenth century. He tentatively suggests that this might have been necessitated by the possible depradations to the building, when Owain Glyndwr's supporters ravaged Swansea in the first decade of the fifteenth century. 40

Pembrokeshire had a number of early hospitals. Nearby the Castle of Llawhaden, bishop Thomas Beck of St. David's had founded in 1287 a hospital dedicated to the Virgin, St. Thomas the Martyr and Edward the Confessor. In 1925 the Historical Monument Commissioners reported that a building used as a stable in a field, still known as Chapel Field, and next to Priory Field on the south, was the remains of the chapel of a mediaeval hospice. It was a stone vaulted chamber 27 x 18 feet, with a closed recess in the church wall, known as an ambry, in its north east corner. There was a single lighted window in the east side with another in the west, and the entrance door in the north wall. The charter for the hospital, designed to avoid the dread condemnation of the Lord hospes fui et non suscepistis me, promised shelter to the pilgrim, the poor orphans, the aged and infirm and other sick people and to the dying:

Ordinamus et statuimus quod in villa de Lawadyn in loco per nos ad hoc specialiter deputato, in quo oratorium ereximus, fiat Hospitalis in quo peregrini, et pauperes orphani, et senes infirmi, et debiles, et caeteri imbecilles, advenae, et languidi transeuntes valeant hospitari, ne verbum dominicum multum terribile 'hospes fui et non suscepistis me', nobis in finali judicio, quod absit, improperari valeat cum dampnatis. 41

The Calendar of Welsh Rolls in a grant to a hospital dedicated to St. Edward, in all probability refers to the Hospital of the Virgin, St. Thomas and St. Edward the king, at Llawhaden:

1291. Sept. 18 Devizes. To the king's bailiffs and subjects, etc Notification that the king has granted to Thomas, bishop of St. Davids, and to the master of the Hospital of St. Edward that they shall have for ever common in all the king's demesne woods in the county of Kardigan, so that they may fell and carry away underwood, oak for timber, and other trees therein at their pleasure and make their advantage thereof as may seem most expedient to them. 42

It was endowed with lands in Cotlande, Kilvayne, the advowson of Kevyn as well as four and a half acres in Llawhaden. 41

In the episcopal register of 27 October 1403 the 'priory or hospital of Llawhaden' on the death of its prior or warden, John ap Morgan, was collated to Sir Richard Wythlokes who, in February 1406/7, was to give his bishop cause for concern. He was 'not troubling to reside in his said priory, but at Tenby openly keeping in his house one Gladusa Meuric, his concubine, leads a life above measure dissolute, and inhumanly ...' If he did not cast her out within one month and never again admit her or any other woman, he was to answer for it. 43 The hospital was still active in 1447:

1447. Sept. 22. Grant to John Launcell, chaplain, of the Hospital or free chapel of Lawhaden, in the diocese of St. David's, in the king's gift by reason of the voidance of the bishopric. 44

There appear to have been two early hospitals in Tenby. The leper hospital of St. Mary Magdalen near the bottom of Heywood Hill, which was founded by Gilbert Mareschal about 1236 and another hospital dedicated to St. John the Baptist, to the west of the Globe Inn, which was founded by William de Valence, Earl of Pembroke and his countess, Joan : 45

There is also within the said parish one Hospital or free Chappell of Saynt Jones [Johns] founded to find a master to serve God and Our Lady and St. John Baptist for ever, and he to have for his salary the value of the land, as by a rental exhibited. 46

The master, Robert Collyns received the whole of the income of £9. 3s. 3d as his stipend. 46

This Hospital of St. John possessed a well, sited in Windpipe Lane, which was also the main source of the town of Tenby's water supply. 47 Leland in the sixteenth century found it something 'to be merveled at, there is no welle yn the towne yt is said, whereby they be forced to fesh theyre water at S. Johns without the towne.' 48 The ruins which Charles Norris drew in 1812 49 had disappeared by 1925 50 and the pious hope of the founder extinguished.

There was a hospital at Llandridian in the Parish of St. David's:

Hospitium. At Llandrudion about two miles east of the cathedral, on a site called Parc Croes in the Tithe Schedule (Nos. 726-8), Fenton (Tour, p. 134) states there was founded 'at a very early period of the church of St. Davids, an hospitium, with a prebend annexed.' 51

The hospital at Whitewell Chapel in the Parish of St. David's, and about a quarter of a mile south of the cathedral was founded by bishop Beck (1280-1293). It is called in the confirmation of pope Eugenius, March 1444/ 5, 'the Priory of Whytwel, and the chapel there, for sick and infirm clergy and for hospitality toward others, endowing it with property valued in 1326 at £5,' 52

In the reign of Henry III, there was a Hospital of the Holy Spirit at Snowdon, whose prior and brothers had thought to enjoy protection in perpetuity:

Hospitale Sancti Spiritus de Snauda' et prior et fratres ejusdem hospitalis habent litteras de protectione patentes sine termino.
Teste et supra. Cancelled, quia in patentibus. 53

There was a hospital of St. Michael at Llandeweryn# to which wardenship the the king's clerk, John Feriby was appointed by a grant of 3 January 1408. 54

#l have been unable to identify this parish.

The Hospitallers of St. John.

Pembrokeshire had associations with another great religious order concerned with the foundation of hospitals, although there is at present no evidence of its having had any particular medical activity in Wales. The Order of St. John of Jerusalem had its origins in the hospital attached to the Benedictine monastery near the Church of the Sepulchre in Jerusalem. This was founded in the last half of the eleventh century by Italian merchants of Amalfi as a hospice for pilgrims of the Latin Church. Originally dedicated to St. John Almoner it was rededicated to St. John the Baptist before the end of the eleventh century. The Benedictine hospitallers adopted the eight pointed white cross of the Republic of Amalfi as their badge, There was a hospital for women in the precincts, dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen.

In 1095, Peter the Hermit preached the Crusade and the Pope supported the mounting of the Holy War. In 1099 the First Crusade captured Jerusalem and found the hospital in charge of the Blessed Gerard. The subsequent increase in the number of pilgrims led to a greater demand for the services of the hospital and it was reorganized by its custodians as Brothers of the Hospital of St. John. With Gerard (d. 1118) as the first rector, they renounced the Benedictine Rule to follow one similar to that of the Augustinians. The hospital was in charge of the hospitaller (infirmarius) and contemporary accounts show that there was an 'enormous number of sick people, both men and women, who were cared for and restored to health at great cost'.

Following the death of Gerard in 1118, the Burgundian nobleman Raymond de Puy was appointed Master, who drew up rules for the Order. The sick continued to receive attention, while the military side was developed in competition with the newly organized Benedictine Knights of the Temple. These Templars were recognized by Pope Honorius II in 1128 and they protected the pilgrims on the route from Jaffa to Jerusalem. The turbulent times demanded that the Hospitallers also undertook a defensive role and this determined their increasingly military character. During the years of the second crusade 1147-49, the Hospitallers and Templars protected Jerusalem.

In 1187 Jerusalem fell to Saladin, who allowed the Hospitallers to remain for one more year to care for the sick. At their dispersal the hospital was converted into a madhouse.

The fall of Jerusalem occasioned the Third Crusade of 1190in which Richard Coeur de Lion took part. The Hospitallers by now established at the distant castle of Margat, transferred their headquarters from thence to Acre, captured in the Second Crusade. They built outside tbe town walls a hospital greater than that they had known at Jerusalem. The pilgrims, still allowed to travel to Jerusalem, although it was never recaptured, used the facilities at Acre, so the Order came to be known as St. Jean d'Acre. They remained there until 1291.

From the very beginning England was involved in the development of the Order. Before the death of Raymond de Puy, many Englishmen had gone out to join the brethren and English estates had been granted to the Order. From Clerkenwell, where tbe church of St. John was consecrated in 1185, the Order spread through England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland.

The Hospitallers were rewarded with many papal privileges. Pope Paschal II, at the time of the recognition of the Order in 1113, had exempted them from the payment of ordinary tithes. Later they were freed from the control of bishops, allowed to administer their own justice and, as they were not even to be affected by national interdicts, their churches became spiritual and civil sanctuaries. Members were able to avoid the authority of a bishop even in his own diocese. Royal favours were added in England and they were quit of army service. The 'religious' rites were even extended to their tenants who could only be tried in the courts of the order of St. John, even for such serious crimes as rape and murder. Both Henry II and Richard I could scarcely do enough for them. In 1253, Henry III gave similar privileges to the Templars.

The Order became increasingly military and international. In England enormous revenues were added by the acquisition of those of the Templars when they were suppressed by Edward II. A report of 1334 showed that the total income of the Knights of St. John equalled £3,826. 4s. 6d a year, greater than that of many sovereign states. Although the provincial organization was in national 'langues', this international and powerful body still behaved supra-nationally. The Master and the Headquarters remained near the Holy land, removing briefly to Cyprus, then Rhodes and finally after 1530 to Malta. In outer countries the national Prior..........

...............and Chapter were responsible to the Master for his Province or 'langue'. Locally there were preceptors and preceptories, a twelfth century term, which was used synonymously with the thirteenth century commanders and commanderies. There were also bailiffs and bailiwicks. Their economy was geared to provide revenue for the service of the Cross in the Holy War. The establishment of the commanderies included the knights of justice, the chaplains, and the serving brothers. 55

There was no separate Welsh langue and no separate Welsh Priory. The Order in Wales remained subordinate to the English Prior. Its earliest benefactors were the Normans, but later on the Welsh supported the Order particularly after archbishop Baldwin and Gerald of Wales' preaching of the Crusade in 1188. The Hospitallers were given lands at Ystrad Meurig and Llanrhystyd in Ceredigion by the Lord Rhys of Deheubarth, in the latter half of the twelfth century. Not much was gained in wilder central Wales. It was in the March, Pembroke and Gower where most of the possessions accrued. The organization of Wales was divided in three, mainly following the existing diocesan boundaries. In west Wales on the north bank of the Eastern Cleddau, the Commandery of Slebech provided the headquarters for their lands in the diocese of St. David's. The commandery of Dinmore, six miles north of Hereford did the same for the dioceses of Llandaf and Hereford. In the north, the preceptory of Halston, near Whittington covered the dioceses of St. Asaph and Bangor and other lands on the northern border of Wales.

Despite their predominant association in the Holy Land with medicine this does not seem to have been the case elsewhere, where their interest was no greater than that of many other religious orders. Their statutes certainly included hospitality as 'one of the most eminent acts of piety and humanity' and commanded that if a sick person presented himself at one of their houses he was to be put to bed and be received charitably with the best the house could provide. Doubtless the commanderies would have had infirmaries for their own and such sick as occasionally presented themselves. But there was no specific organized care for the sick and Rees believes that there are 'few indications of the existence of a hospital at any of the local provincial houses, neither are doctors or hospital attendants numbered amongst the household staff'. 56

There were hospitals attached to the Order of St. John at both Worcester and Hereford; but these had begun as private institutions for the poor and infirm and were granted to the Order by Richard I. They passed to the commandery of Dinmore.

The city hospital of Hereford in Widemarsh Street in the northern suburbs outside the northern gate cared for poor and sick men. There were some thirty acres of land and the jurisdiction of the hospital extended from the city gate to the Tan Brook, wherein no city officer had powers of arrest. The medical work of the hospital continued under the Order. Rees states that Leland was mistaken in believing it to be a Templar foundation. After the dissolution, the hospital was acquired by Sir Thomas Coningsby of Hampton Court, who in 1614 converted ................

.................... it into a hospital for old soldiers, sailors and serving men, using the stone from the neighbouring house of the Black Friars. 'It forms a very decent quadrangle and contains twelve houses, one for a Chaplain, another for a Master who is styled Corporal Coningsby, and ten for the other members who are named Servitors. Five of these Servitors, together with the Corporal are obliged by the endowment of the Hospital, to have been three years at least in the capacity of soldiers in actual service, and to be inhabitants of the counties of Hereford, Worcester, or Salop'. If old soldiers could not be found, then they were to be 'Mariners of the said counties' and to have been three years at sea. The other five were to be old serving men, with at least seven years service in one family. This still stands and Sir Thomas left a detailed description of the dress or uniform his pensioners were to wear. A scarlet, laced coat with a moncado or 'Spanish cap' and each man to carry 'a soldier-like sword with a belt'. All members were required on certain occasions to go in procession to service in the Cathedral with a large Bible carried in front. The seal of the hospital in the shape of 'a Coney in a bunch of Feathers in a Coronet' was kept locked in a chest with two locks and two keys; one in the possession of the chaplain and the other in that of the corporal . 57

The rules, as usual, were strict and perhaps particular care had to be taken with old soldiers. Rule number IX warned 'If any of the residing servitors shall be duly convicted before the said corporal of swearing, cursing, or being drunk, he shall forefeit out of his week's pay, for every oath 1/- and for every time being drunk 2/6'. 58 Price also records an Alms-House within Widemarsh, Hereford Turnpike Gate, for four men who have ten shillings each a quarter, from a charity founded by the ancestors of Thomas Symonds Powell, Esq., of Pengethley, in the county. 59

Dinmore very nearly had an active hospital at Acornbury, a few miles from Hereford. There were Sisters of the Order of St. John who had a duty to look after the hospital sick, and their only house in England was at Buckland in Somerset. Margaret de Lacy, of the great Marcher family, somewhat precipitately, without consulting her husband or the local bishop, and certainly without considering all the possible consequences of her act, obtained a site from King John on which to build a hospital for the poor and sick. Unfortunately, she thought it a good idea to attach her house to the preceptory of Dinmore. Too late she realized that the sisters, under the rules of the Order would be liable for service abroad. This was a disaster she had not contemplated and so set about attempting to disaffiliate them. But already they had been professed and assumed the, sign of the Cross, which the Hospitallers regarded as a prohibitive step to any change of allegiance. There arose a great ecclesiastical dispute involving the Hospitallers, the bishops of Hereford and Coventry, and the Pope in the petitions of Margaret de Lacy. There were, not surprisingly, concurrent internal disciplinary troubles at Acornbury. Margaret's husband, meanwhile, felt it was time to intervene and after a further enquiry, commanded by the Pope to be made by the bishop of Hereford and the abbot of Dore, the matter was referred in 1237 to the Papal................

.................legate. As a result the Sisters of Acornbury were freed from their observance of the rules of the Order of St. John and happily became a house of Augustinian nuns. 60

Information on Slebech, the only commandery solely concerned with Wales, is sadly lacking. The old hospice itself was completely destroyed and Slebech Hall built over the site of the commandery. Lewis Glyn Cothi, in the fifteenth century wrote a cywydd comparing pilgrimages to the healing altar of St. John at Slebech Church with those to Bardsey. 61 These journeys were scarcely in the great tradition of those hospitallers who had arrived at Slebech shortly after Pope Paschal's recognition of the Order in 1113.

The village of Spittal, near Haverfordwest, contains one of the earliest known grants to the Hospitallers in Wales. The Church of St. Leonard and the Castle of Ros was given to them by Alexander Rudepac, lord of Rudbaxton, before 1148. The site is marked on OS 1" Ordnance Sheet 89 as Rath. 62 Other Slebech lands still bearing the name of ysbyty are at Ysbyty Ifan (hospice of St. John) of Ystrad Meurig. This was being farmed for the commandery as early as 1338, and was the place where the 'frary' (the fraternity dues) of the Order for Ceredigion was collected. Llanrhystud, which also has an ysbyty was a Hospitaller possession, seemingly included in the confirmation of the physician prior of Llanthony, Geoffrey of Henlaw, after his election to the bishopric of St. David's (1203-1214). The Ysbyty Ifan of Carmarthenshire near Nantgaredig in Widigada, may have belonged to the Order which had other possessions there, although Rees has been unable to find specific association. 63

The commandery of Halston owned the Ysbyty Ifan of Dolgynwal. The Hospital of St. John at Oswestry was known as le Spytty, and the name lingers on also at the Dinmore possessions at Llanwddyn. There is no evidence that the ysbyty of Wrecsam belonged to the Order. 64

There may have been a hospice of the Templars in the lordship of Narberth. The modern church of St. John in the village of Templeton was built on the site of an older building, which had earlier been used as an Unitarian Meeting House. The Knights of the Temple, who gave the village its name of Templar's Town, may have possessed land here. When the Templars were suppressed in 1308, their estates were sequestrated and transferred to the Hospitallers of St. John. At this time Templeton passed to the Mortimers of Narberth. 65

The Templars are also said to have had a hospital at Rhuddlan, founded by Edward I in 1279. Near the Priory of Rhuddlan, a Dominican house, was once a farmhouse called Spittal or 'Ysbythy'. An edict of Edward I commands that as the burial ground of the church of Rhuddlan had become inadequate, that another site near the hospital be made available. 66

The hospital is believed to have stood 'about a quarter of a mile to the North East of the priory, on the southern side of the road leading to Diserth ... Leaden pipes and conduits, leading from the hospital to the priory, have been dug up in the fields ... ' 67

The widespread name ysbyty, ( yspyty, ysptty, ysbythy), spite and spittal produces one of those interesting problems, which can make a particular historical study into a local detective exercise. Were there really all those places in Wales with hospitals? Very many of them in all probability only refer to land held by the hospitallers, yr ysbytywyr.

Some seventeenth century Welsh hospitals.

Denbigh has a few almshouses and one hospital recorded in earlier times. Christ's Hospital in Rhuthun, was founded by Dr. Goodman, Dean of Westminster under letters patent of the 32nd year of Queen Elizabeth's reign for a priest and twelve poor persons, ten men and two women to attend on them. All were to be unmarried at the time of election and above fifty years of age. 68 The bishop of Bangor was appointed president with a priest as warden, and these two had the entire government both of the hospital and of Dr. Goodman's Grammar School. The seal of the hospital represents a saint in the act of blessing, and holding a banner in his left hand. Sigillum hospitalis Christi in Ruthin 1590. Elizabeth 32. 69 Blome in 1673 notes 'Ruthin ... hath a large hospital ... founded and well endowed by Dr. Gabriel Goodman.'' 70 The Statutes of the Hospital may be found in the reference to the Bishop of Bangor's Return of 1665, given below.

Sir John Wynn of Gwydir was believed to have founded a hospital and a school at Llanrwst in 1610. The almshouses in Church Street have a stone in the gable. 71Thomas Dineley in his account of the visit of the first Duke of Beaufort to Wales in 1683 found near the parish church such a hospital for twelve poor people and bearing the inscription I Wynn de Gwyder fil. Mauricii miles et baronetta fundavit an. sal. restit. MDCX'. 72 This old hospital, known as Jesus Hospital may have been founded by a man other than Sir John. Lewis suggests 'the true founder was a gentleman of the name of Williams'. The hospital is named in the bishop of St. Asaph's Return of 1665, given below.

Bishop Henry Rowland (1551-1616) founded a hospital at Bangor by his last Will and Testament dated I July 1616 for 'six poor old impotent Men' who were to be 'remov'd and punish'd for any notorious Crime or if found remiss in coming to Church'. 73 It was noted in the Return of the Bishop of Bangor.

The town of Haverfordwest, which was stricken by the pestilence in 1652, found the rapid increase in the number of cases necessitated the establishment of a pest house for the care of the poorer victims. This was done at the town's expense and although the wealthier citizens often preferred to remain within their own houses, barred and chained from the outside, some found admission to the municipal pesthouse as paying patients. The Town Council employed men, known as 'tarcoats' to attend the sick and bury the dead, and there were other attendants as well, including a somewhat mysterious visiting woman 'thought to have been sent there by providence'. She was paid six shillings a week, and left after the sickness had subsided in March 1663 to join her friends in England. 74

In an undated letter, probably written about 1665, John Nicholas, clerk of the Privy Council, and others, asked the archbishop of Canterbury for a descriptive list of all hospitals concerned in the maintenance of maimed mariners and the like. 75 The archbishop dutifully requested the bishops to supply the particulars : 76

His Maties instructions concerning ye present condition of all Hospitalls in England and Wales, directed to the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury who is required to recommend the same to the enquiry of the Bishops of both Provinces, as well of York as Canterbury, and in His Maties name, to command them, that with all convenient speed they doo each of them respectively certifye to his Grace the following particulars, viz:

1. How many Hospitalls there are within your diocese?

2. Who were the ffounders thereof?

3. What the revenue of each Hospitall doth yearely amount unto upon the Rentall?

4. What the fines are or may be reputed to be worth Communibus Annis.

5. What lands and woods, or leasehold houses or tenements belong to each Hospitall, and who hath the letting and setting of same.

6. Who are the ffeoffees in trust (if any such bee) for the said Hospitalls, and whether you have heard any just cause of complaint against them that they have not performed their trust?

7. Who is the present Master, Warden, Prior, Governor or Head of every of the said Hospitalls, and what is his allowance according to thc foundation, or what is his place reputed to be worth in common esteeme?

8. How many poore are maintained in each Hospitall, and of what sort, Men, Wooman, or children, and what their places are worth according to the foundation or reputed according to the common esteeme. And whether there be now as many members as ought to bee by the foundation, if not, how many, and what places are voyd, and who receives the profitts of them, and if they all have their allowances duly made them as they ought?

9. What Statues, Orders or Rules the said Hospitalls respectively are governed by, and to send up copyes of them.

(signed) Will. Morice. 76

(undated) c. 1665.

The bishops of the Welsh diocese of St. Asaph, Bangor, and St. David's made their returns in 1665. There is no Return from Llandaff. The Lord Bishop of St. Asaph found one hospital at Llanrwst.

Bp. of St. Asaph's Returne concerning Hospitalls.

May it please your Grace.

In obedience to his Maties and your Grace's Letters and Commaunds I have made diligent inquirie concerning Hospitalls and Almeshouses within my Diocese, and do not finde, that there is any more than one Hospitall or Almes-House within the compasse of my Inspection:
And that of a late erection.

1. That one Hospitall is at Llanroost a market town in the Countie of Denbigh.

2. The Founder of it Sr. John Wynne of Gwyder, Knt, and Baronett.

3. The maintenance sett out for it is the Impropriate tithes of the Parish of Eglwys Vaugh in that neighbourhood, worth about 100 lb per annum.

4. & 5. No Lands or tenements or woods belonging to it, and consequently No Fines. The Heire of the House of Gwyder hath hitherto taken care by his Agents to sett or lett the tieths.

6. The trust, for all I can learn, is reposed wholly in the Heire of Gwyder.

7. The said Heirc hath the ordering of it by his Chaplain Mr. W. Brickdall, the Vicar of the Parish, who hath twentie pound per an. for Preaching and overseeing it.

8. The number intended by the Founder was twelve poore men single persons at the allowance of two shillings by the weeke: But in regard the rate of tieths is fallen much, and the founder ordered a free schoole to be there kept also upon the alone profitts of that Rectorie Eglwys Vaugh, the maintenance not answering the charge, there are at present but ten men: But they are, I am assured, verie duly paid.

9. Statutes and Orders, I heare, were intended by the Founder, but not perfected and settled. So that the ordering and government of the Hospitall is wholy, as I conceive, in the Heire of the House of Gwyder.

Geo. Asaphen. 77

The bishop of Bangor found four hospitals: that of bishop Rowlands at Bangor, David Hughes at Beaumaris, Lewis Rogers at Penmynydd and Dr. Goodman at Rhuthun.

Bp. of Bangor concerning Hospitalls, 1665.
Bangor Diocesse.

With all dutifull obedience to ye King's most excellent Maties, Command and Instructions concerning Hospitalls, transmitted by ye Ld. Archbp. of Cant. His Grace; His Grace's most humble Servant William Ld. Bp. of Bangor in all humility returnes and certifyeth as followeth;

1. There are 4 Hospitalls within ye sd Diocesse, first one of Bangor founded by Bp. Rowlands; ye Revenue 40 lb per annum without Lease or Fine, not having houses or tenemts. beside belonging thereunto; The Ffeoffees, The Bp. and Deane of Bangor for ye time being, Robt. Morgan D.D., Owen Wynne Esq., John Wms. Esq., Michael Evans B.D., Edd Wynne D.D. and John Gethyn M.A. Six poore men are maintained in ye sd. Hospitall. Their salary 2s. weekely, a Gowne to each at Christmas with some supply of bedding and fuell; the Places all full. They are to be elected by the founder's will out of ye severall parishes of Amlouch, Llancristiolis, and Penmynydd in ye county of Anglesey, and Bangor and Meilltierne in ye county of Carnarvon. They are to bee unmarryed persons, and to attend morning and evening Service dayly in ye Cathedrall, and have no other statutes then what are comprised in ye sd. founders will of ye effect before expressed.

2. Another neere Bewmares in ye county of Anglesey founded by David Hughes, gent. The Revenue, joyntly with that of ye free schoole in Bewmares aforesd. of ye same foundation 100 lb, per annum or thereabouts. Some Lands are leased for yeares, but not fine payd. The ffeoffees, The Bp. of Bangor and Maior of Bewmares for ye time being, the Ld. Bulkely, Thomas Bulkeley, Gryffith Jones Esq., Robt. Morgan D.D., Pierce Lloyd, William Bold, and Robert Coytmor Esqrs. Eight poore men are there maintayned, their salary 1s. 6d. weekely, a Gowne at Christmas. The Land of this and ye former Hospitall sett and lett by the ffeoffees. They are to be elected according to ye founder's will out of ye Rectory of Llantrisant in ye county of Anglesey: the power of election is vested in ye sd. ffeoffees and have no other statutes than what are comprised in ye sd. founder's will of ye purport before mentioned.

3. A third Hospitall there is in Penmynydd in ye County of Anglesey, founded by Lewis Rogers Gent. The Revenue 60 lb per annum. A rent charge without any manner of improvemts. upon ye heyre of Bodofylyn in ye county of Carnarvon to be pd. quarterly but not performed accordingly through Default of ye present tenant or owner of ye sd. lands. Eight poore men are there maintayned, and two poor women to be elected by ye ffeoffees hereafter mentioned out of ye sd. parish of Penmynydd, and neighbouring Parishes. The ffeoffees are ye Heyres males of ye house of Penmynydd, the Heirs males of Hugh Williams of Skyviog Gent, the Prebendary of Penmynydd and ye Churchwardens there for ye time being. A copy of ye Statutes are herewith sent. The Stipend is 1 lb 10s. per Quarter not duely payd. One of ye poore men is elected by ye name of Governour of the sd. Hospitall, but without any Additionall Mayntenance to ye former stipend. Neither are there any Master, Warden, Prior or Governor of either of ye sd. Hospitalls of Bangor and Bewmares before mention'd, in which two last mention'd Hospitalls ye poore are duly payd their Salaries.

4. A fourth Hospitall there is at Ruthyn in ye county of Denbigh founded by Dr. Goodman D.D. and sometime Deane of Westm'r. The Revenue be ye tythes of Ruthyn aforesd. and Llan Rhydd and about 14 lb per annum besides in Lands. The value of the Tythes uncertaine, but together with ye sd. lands computed Communibus annis to be ultra reprise of ye cleare yearly value of 80 lb or thereabouts. The number of ye poore to be mayntained there is 10 men and 2 women who are to bee single persons. The ffeoffees are ye Bp. of Bangor for the time being, who is also President of ye sd. Hospitall, The Warden of Ruthyn for ye time being, the heyres males of Symon, Thelwall of Plas y Ward, the heyres males of Gabriel Goodman of Ruthyn Gent, The Aldermen and Churchwardens of Ruthyn for ye time being, who are to elect 2 persons upon every vacancy out of the Parishes of Ruthyn, Llan Rhydd, Llanvair or Llanelidan in ye sd. county of Denbigh, and to present their names unto ye sd. President ye Bp. of Bangor for ye time being, who is to nominate one of ye sd. persons so presented according to his discretion. The salary of the sd. Almesmen and women is 12d. by ye weeke payd by the Guardian, who at present is Mr. Jon. Lloyd M.A. his salary is 26 lb 13s. 4d. per annum ; the right of Presentation to the sd. Wordenship belongs to the Deane and Chapter of Westm'r. The sd. poore since ye admission of ye sd. Warden have their salaries duly payd. The Warden is to be a Priest by Ordination according to the forme prescribed in ye Church of England, and is by himselfe or sufficient Curate or Curates to dischardge ye severall cures of Ruthyn and Van Rhydd aforesd. He hath noe considerable emolument over and above ye sd. salary save onley a dwelling house and out houses and gardens in ye sd. Towne of Ruthyn called ye Cloysters. There are no fines had or feases made of any of the Revenue of the sd. Hospitall. The statutes of the sd. Hospitall cannot at present be procured to be transcribed, being very large, but shall bee with all convenient speed transmitted as is required. 78

The bishop of St. Davids made brief reference to what might have been but a memory of Bishop Gower's Hospital of the Blessed David:

Swansey St. Davids Diocese. Nothing of any Hospitall to be found, but only some darke
records of an Hospitall and College long since at Swansey, but now wholly lost.
Per Dnum . Ep'um Meneven
July 12, 1665 to 38

The statutes on folios 361-362 verso of Lambeth Palace MS. 639 are those of the 'hospitall or almeshouse' at Penmynydd, founded by Lewis Rogers. The salient points concern (1.) the governor and feoffees, who were (2) to elect 'ten poore & honest persons (two whereof to be women) out of ye foure parishes next adjoyning ye sd. Hospitall or Almshouse . . .' each person to be over 50 years and of good repute and without a record of public punishment for 'theft, whoredom, drunkeness or blasphemy' within 3 years of election. (3) Any of the inmates having children under 12 must guarantee that the children will not be the reponsibility of the almshouse. None of the inmates to have any guest there for more than 14 days, on pain of expulsion. (4) None of the inmates were to be married to anyone under 50 years on penalty of expulsion. (5) All were to attend parish service at Penmynydd ou the Sabbath and certain other days. Penalty: fines--- ........................

.....................mounting at each offence --- then expulsion. (6) Any inmates becoming 'grieveous swearers, notorious drunkards, troublesome brawlers or fighters' were to be fined or expelled. (7) Each inmate was to receive xxxs quarterly. (8) When an inmate died, no new inmate was to be chosen until1 quarter had passed; the deceased's quarterly payment to be distributed in specified proportions. (9) The inmates were to 'keep their room in sufficient reparation', 'And yt. ye sd. two women shall be from time to time intentive and take care of any of ye sd. persons their brethren whom God shall visit with sicknesse, to ye best of their ability and power'; no inmate shall be absent more than 3 days and nights. (10) Collection & disposal of fines . (11) Methods of trying offenders.
(12) These ordinances were to be read to the inmates every Good Friday and (13) one of the inmates elected should be able to read and write: he shall be called President or Register of the house; he shall have the best or largest rooms, read divine service, keep a register of offenders etc. 78

Some early hospitals in the Border.

Many more small hospitals were founded in the Border towns and cities than in Wales itself. Hereford was particularly well endowed. Sir John Coningsby's hospital that had been once the city hospital, has already been mentioned; but there were fourteen or so others.

The Hospital, or Almshouses, of St. Ethelbert in Castle Street, Hereford was there in 1231, when one of the 'indulgencies' was dated, and

appears by several instruments among the archives of the Cathedral Church to have been built and endowed in the reign of Henry III by indulgencies or relaxation of penance, granted by different Bishops, to such as contributed towards erecting and supporting it; numerous copies of which are still to be seen. 79

The sums collected in this way must have at one time been considerable as when alms could be distributed daily to one hundred persons, ubi centum quotidie refectos fuisse, legimus. In the nineteenth century the treasurer of the cathedral, if a residentiary canon, was the custos of the hospital. Otherwise the statutes decreed that the management was in the hands of the dean and greater number of canons. From the reign of Charles I, inmates had been ten in number, 'advanced in age and of good character; pauperes, aetate graves, moribusque commodis'. It had been the custom to limit the definition of pauperes to poor women. Matins and vespers had to be attended at the Cathedral, encouraged by 'a loaf of good bread, weighing one pound and a half, or eighteen ounces at the least', which was distributed to each daily at the conclusion of morning prayers, together with one penny on the Sabbath. 'Or in lieu of the whole, 8d. to each every Saturday'. They were provided with an apartment, a small garden and twenty shillings a year with which to buy fuel. 80

In the year 26 Henry VIII the Hospital of St. Ethelbert was valued at £10. 1. 10. per annum. 81

The hospital dedicated to St. Anthony at Hereford was an 'alien house' subject to the rule of the bishop of Vienne which had the protection of king Edward I in 1294. 82 He exercised his protection in restoring to them the advowson of the church of All Saints in the following year:

Restitution to the master and brethren of the hospital of St. Anthony, in the diocese of Vienne, of the advowson of the church of All Saints, Hereford, formerly held by them by gift of Henry III, and resumed into the king's hands for a default made in court by the said master before John de Berewyk and his fellows, justices lately in eyre in Hereford. 83

In 1299 as the result of a complaint by Brother Edmund Karle, protector-general in England of the house of St. Anthony, Vienne, there was issued a 'Mandate for five years to all bailiffs ...' 84
Clay states that the 'Order of St. Anthony was ... an offshoot of that of St. John. Two of the hospitals in honour of this saint were definitely under Antonine monks, viz. London and Hereford'. 85

Trinity Hospital, Bye Street commonly called Kerry's Hospital was founded in 1601 by Thomas Kerry, Esq., of Sherefield, Kent. Amongst other privileges the twelve poor widows, for whom it cared, were given one shilling a week . 86 Kerry hoped that 'All that my mesuages and houses, etc, lying and being in the parish of St. Peter in the city of Hereford ... shall be and remain a Hospital for ever'. The foundation deed specified for the care of three unmarried men and twelve widows, each to have 'a chamber in the said Hospital'. Its seal reminded thein of their mortality; a death's head circumscribed memento mori. 87

William Price's Hospital is near to that of St. Anthony, and here William Price, citizen and merchant of London, provided apartments for twelve poor men who had to have resided for seven years in Hereford prior to election, and for a chaplain. In his will of 3 November 1604 he recommended that 'the said twelve poor men shall resort to the Chapel in their gowns and shall upon Sundays, Holy Days and Lecture Days come in their gowns to the Cathedral church and in default be censyred, suspended or displaced' . 88, 89

Mary Price's Hospital was built in Wroughtall Street, after she had bequeathed the sum of £200 in 1636 to erect 'six tenements as an hospital for the residence of as many poor women'. 90

Williams's Hospital is shown in the Hereford plan on John Speed's Map of the County, adjoining St. Giles. It was endowed with Nunsland or Broxwood, formerly belonging to the Priory of Limebrook, in the parish of Eardisland. It had apartments for six men, who were given twelve shillings a month. They were repaired in 1620 by Bridstock Harford, Esq. The Senior Aldermen of the Corporation governed both the hospital and St. Giles. 91 with a common chapel, where divine service was performed three times a week.

Lingen's Hospital, Hereford, was founded by the will of Jane, widow of William Shelley, and only daughter and co-heiress of John Linger. By this will, .........................

......................... dated 7th February 1709 she bequeathed a suitable house and gardens for the residence of six poor widows, endowing it with a 'rent charge of £30 per annum'. By 1796 the houses were becoming ruinous and at the turn of the century it was necessary to distribute alms to the women in their own houses as more of the accommodation became uninhabited. 88, 89

A hospital near the bridge over the Wye, dedicated to St. Thomas the Martyr of Canterbury, was founded before 1225 A.D. by one of the Warennes: 92

Rex confirmat donationem factem per Willielmum filium Warini Deo et Hospitali juxta pontem de Waye in civitate Hereford, de molendino de Mawortham, et diversis aliis. 93

There were also almshouses in Berrington Street (Plow Lane) for six poor women who had tenpence per week, and in Bewell Street for five poor persons. 94, 95

The hospital of St. Giles (1250 A.D.) and the Lazarus hospital of Hereford were for lepers. There was apparently another St. Giles Hospital in St. Owen Street (1150A.D.) 96 which may also have been leper, and the Corporation MSS. of Hereford contain a notification in 1547 of the appointment of collectors for 'the house of leprous persons founded in the worship of St. Anne and St. Loye'. 97

The hospital of Our Lady (1400 A.D.), also called St. Mary of Bethlehem lay outside West Gate. 98

Knowles and Hadcock suggest that St. Sepulchre of Widemarsh founded in 1221 in the time of Henry II became the Hospital of St. John. 99 As it was dedicated to the Holy Ghost and St. John in 1340 this might have been the date of its transfer to the Hospitallers. In 1614 it was refounded as Coningsby's Hospital . 96

Hugh Foliot, bishop of Hereford, built a hospital at Ledbury dedicated to St. Katherine in 1232 A.D. This had many benefactors in the centuries that followed and its revenues in the time of Henry VIII amounted to £32. 7. 11. gross, £22. 5. 0. nett, per annum. A quarter of the offerings received were reserved for parochial use A useful definition which avoided the dispute that often otherwise arose over the division. It was refounded by Queen Elizabeth in 1580. Originally meant for a master, prior and several poor brethren and sisters, this was later defined as a master nominated by the dean and chapter of Hereford and his fraternity of 'seven poor widowers and three poor women widows who have each an allowance of £ 6. 13s. 4d. per annum besides clothes and firing'. Dr. Thornton, vice chancellor of Oxford was master in the reign of king James I. 100, 101

In the western suburb of Shrewsbury, known as Frankevile was the Hospital of St. John the Baptist, founded in 1221 A.D. 102 It was also known as St.John Walshgate. 103 In 1371 the hospital was in the custody of Robert Harlescott, Chaplain. 104 In 1391 a 'grant for life' was made 'to the king's servant William Gaynesburgh of the wardenship of the hospital of St. John by the Walsshgate, Shrewsbury'. 105 William Shelve succeeded Roger Merssh as warden in 1439. 106

The Hospital of St. George, Walshgate (1162) was annexed to the Hospital of St. John the Baptist before 1465, when the former was a free chapel. 107 In 1449 there was a

Grant to John Hampton, esquire for the body, of the collation of the next voidance of the hosiptal of St. George without the gate of Shrewsbury called 'Walsgate' alias 'Walsyate', and of the master or warden thereof. 108

In Speed's Map of Shropshire, St. George's Chapel appears near 'The Stew' together with St. George's Almshouses (anciently known as 'Collde's almshouses'.) The old 'Welsh Bridge' over the Severn was also called St. George's Bridge and the tolls of St. George's Gate were part of the revenue of the Hospital of St. John. 104

The almshouses of St. Chad (c. 1409) were under the care of the Mercers Fraternity of Shrewsbury. 109 They were founded by Bennet Tupton 'a common beer brewer who dwelt in the College in St. Chad's churchyard'. He did not endow them. 110

St. Mary's Almshouses in Ox Lane were under the care of the Drapers Fraternity 111 and were founded in the reign of Edward IV, about the year 1460, by a draper called Digery Waters (Degory Watur). He died on 28th July 1447 and was buried in Trinity Chapel of St. Mary's Church. His statue, together with that of his wife, and also one of King Edward IV were in the porch of the almshouse. Rather grimly, and again a reminder of their mortality, a rule of 1587 required 'Each person admitted, to bring with them a winding sheet, with 4d. wrapt up in it to pay for their burial' 112

Bridgnorth, Salop had four early hospitals of which two were for lepers, St. James and the Vetus Maladeria.

The Hospital of the Holy Trinity also dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist was believed to have been founded by Ralph Lestrange, Lord of Alveley, in the time of Richard I, before 1199. Usually called St. John's Hospital, it stood 'in the Low Town of Bridgnorth, within the angle formed by Mill Street and St. John's Street ... Thus placed, the house commanded every highway by which travellers could approach the Town from places lying Eastward of the Severn'. Under the patronage of the Crown and Lilleshall Abbey it served a master or prior, several brothers, and the poor, sick and aged.' 113, 114, 109

In the years 1344 and 1345 there were two acquisitions in mortmain. 115, 116 Several of the fourteenth and fifteenth century wardens are known. John Mildenal in 1402 followed by John Shakill, chaplain, in 1403, and yet another grant of the hospital to John Rotherbury, clerk, before that year's end. 117 On 11th January 1405, John Rotherbury appeared before the king in person at the Palace of Westminster and 'acknowledged that the hospital was void by his resignation and in the king's collation, praying that the king would grant the collation to some other person'. This the king did on February l0th by giving it for life to William Benet, clerk of the king's closet. On 4 May 1409 the wardenship was granted to another king's clerk, John Arondell. 118 On 6 May 1439 Edward Wade, chaplain became the warden on the resignation of one, Richard Baxter. 119

Knowles and Hadcock also record the hospital of St. Leonard at Bridgnorth, founded before 1278. 120

The thirteenth century hospital at Whitchurch, de Albo Monasterio or Blancminster was 'of several poor brethren, to which John le Strange, temp. Hen. III., gave the town of Winelecote, which together with the Hospital were afterwards annexed to the Abbey of Haghmon'. Leland adds Burton to the Shropshire list. 121 In 1275, King Edward I gave his protection to the Hospital of St. John, Wenlock:

Protection with clause rogamus, for one year, for the master and brethren of the hospital of St. John, Wenlock. 122

Ludlow could boast of four hospitals. That of the Holy Trinity, St. Mary and St. John the Baptist beside the bridge was founded by Peter Undergod in 1253 for a prior, or master and several poor and infirm brethren. 123, 124 Also the hospital of St. John the Evangelist founded in 1486 by J. Hosyer, which was under the patronage of the Palmer's Guild. 123 'A College or Fraternity of the Palmer's Guild was founded here at an early date, to the west of the church of St. Lawrence'. It had ten priests in the sixteenth century and a hospital or almshouse beside it for thirty poor people or more. 125, 126

There also appears to have been a hospital dedicated to St. John the Baptist, some time before 1411, in which year an indulgence was granted for the repair of its bells. 127 St. Giles Hospital, Ludford founded after 1216 on the Herefordshire side of the river was originally for lepers. 128

As Nesscliff, Great Ness, Le Strange founded a private hospital 'St. Mary de Rocherio' about 1250. Newport had a hospital dedicated to St. Giles in 1337, and in 1446 the Hospital of St. Nicholas was founded there by W. Glover and others under the patronage of the town. 124

Bishop Reyner of St. Asaph founded a hospital of St. John the Baptist at Oswestry in 1210 which came under the patronage of Haughmond Abbey. 124 This was the hospital known as le Spytty and was an early gift to the preceptory of St. John at Halston. 129 Much Wenlock's hospital of St. John was founded in 1267. 111 De Bohun of Pembridge founded an almshouse of St. Bartholomew for thirteen poor people attached to Tong College, at Tong, Salop about 1410. 111, 130

The Hospital of St. John the Baptist without Northgate at Chester was said to have been founded by Earl Randle before 1232 and came under the patronage of Birkenhead Priory. 131 In 1241 the brothers of the Chester Hospital were given permission to build a chapel:

Pro fratribus hospitalis Cestris.---Rex concessit fratribus hospitalis Sancti Johannis Cestr' quod possint construere quandam capellam ultra portam Foryate, et mandatum est J. Extraneo, justicario Cestr', quod fratres ipsos capellam illam construere permittat. Teste rege apud Heywud', vij. die Septembris. 132

In the early years of the fourteenth century several justices of Chester were ordered to pay £4. 10s. a year of ancient alms to the hospital. 133 Like many other .............

................. hospitals it suffered its share of misrule. William de la Bache, chaplain was granted custody in 1309. By 1311 it was necessary to instruct Payn Tybotot, Justice of Chester, to remove him for he had 'so impoverished the hospital as to impair its hospitality and works of mercy'. He was replaced by Thomas de Burton, chaplain. 134

The custody of the hospital by the prior and convent of Birkenhead was confirmed in 1316, 'provided that they maintain the hospitalities and other burthens incumbent on the same hospital, as well as for the sustenance of chaplains to celebrate divine service in the hospital, as of the weak and infirm touching the finding of their food and necessaries of life and the distribution of alms and largesses, as was accustomed to be done in the hospital in times past ...' 135

The financial affairs were again in a sorry state in 1347, when Richard de Wilton, clerk to the king's son, Edward, duke of Cornwall and earl of Chester, was given custody of the hospital 'which is reported to be burdened with heavy charges and suffering from misrule' . 136

In 1379, John Scolhale, escheator, was ordered to extend the advowsons of 100s. a year of the church of St. John the Baptist, £500 of the abbey of Vale Royal and £166. 13s. 4d. annually of the abbey of Basingwerk. 137 In November of 1379, Thomas de Brunham, executor of the will of Master John de Brunham, who had been 'keeper of the hospital of St. John without the Northgate' was commanded to transfer to the new keeper, William de Walsham, lands of the value of £10, 'in frank almoin' (or free alms) to provide for a chaplain. His duties included the celebration of 'divine service daily therein for the good estate of the king whilst living, for his soul after death, and for the soul of the king's father ... with power reserved to the king to re-enter upon the premises in case of failure to find a chaplain ...' 138 In 1386, William Walsham the king's clerk was granted for life the keepership and in 1388 was granted, again for life, the wardenship, although he would appear already to have been the responsible custodian in 1379. 139, 140 In 1389, the wardenship passed to the king's clerk, Thomas Marton; in 1390 to John Maidenhith, clerk; in 1391 to William Asston, clerk; in 1393 to John Hebden, clerk; then within a few months to another Hebden called William . 141-5

In 1394, the king's clerk, Thomas Marton, returned to a life tenure of the wardenship 146 and appointed Richard dil Lee as the 'chief priest' and administrator, with recommendations for his pay and accommodation.

1398. Feb 5. Inspeximus and confirmation to Richard dil Lee, chaplain, of letters patent of Thomas Marton, master-warden of the hospital of St. John without the North gate, Chester, dated at Chester, Tuesday St. Peter in Cathedra in the nineteenth year, being a grant for life, with the assent of the brethren and sisters of the hospital, to the said Richard of the office of chief priest of the hospital together with the chief administration in the church of the said hospital, taking 8 marks of silver therefor from the rents and revenues of the same at the warden's hands, and that he have a sufficient chamber standing between the hall and granges in the hospital for his abode. John Leche, citizen of Chester,...................

..............attorney of the said Thomas, has by his order put the said Richard in possession of the office and in seisin of the rent and profits and revenues of the hospital by payment of a penny.
For 1/2 mar, paid in the hanaper. 147

But in September 1398, Thomas Marton resigned the wardenship to Master Robert Rothebury. 148 Thomas Marton appears to have been a very fickle master warden.

Dugdale says that this hospital, founded 'for the sustentation of poor and silly persons', was demolished in the siege of Chester, and the site granted to the city by Oliver Cromwell. The hospital was rebuilt in the reign of Charles II. 149

The hospital seal shows John the Baptist in the wilderness represented by a scourge of thistles in the hands of angels, with the surround Johan. Bapt. Cestr.Sigile Hospital Sancti. 150

Chester had a later hospital founded in 1532 by R. & T. Smith dedicated to St. Ursula 131 and the leper hospital of St. Giles.

St. Nicholas Hospital at Nantwich was founded about 1087 by W. Malbank 131 and again there was one for lepers dedicated to St. Laurence. The hospital for St. Nicholas was said to have stood in or near Hospital Street, and the following masters are recorded: Alexander Blount, 4 non. Dec. 1330; Thomas Corbet; Roger de Alterton, 5 id. May 1350; Nicholas Revall, 1354; John de Ormesheved, 1374; John de Woodhouse, 1376; Thomas Hyne, 1395; Alan de Newark, 27 June 1396; Thomas Heywood; Ralph Egerton, 26 Oct. 1468; Richard Egerton, 1477; ... Gwynne, 26 Henry VIII and William Hill. Hill, the last named incumbent of the chapel and hospital, was living in 1556 upon a pension of a hundred shillings. The hospital was endowed by one of the Lords Lovel with the 'tyth proceeding out of all his owne lands'. 151

The Hospital of St. Andrew at Denhall or Denwall in Cheshire was founded before 1238 and is apparently the same as the one known at Burton in Wirral for the poor and shipwrecked. It was granted to St. John's hospital, Lichfield in 1496. 151 Denwall was a hamlet attached to the township of Nesse, where juxta littus maris was the Poor Hospital of Denwall given by Alexander de Savensby, bishop of Lichfield and Coventry to the Church of Burton, 'by Charter dated kal. Jan. 1238'. It was rebuilt and endowed by bishop Smyth in 1496. The recorded names of the masters, who were rectors of Burton, are listed in the Lichfield Registers of Masters of St. Andrew, Denwall. John de Northburgh, 1336; William de Neuhalgh, 29 Jan. 1374; John Lugate, 4 Aug. 1400; Thomas Wickersley; Roger Walle, 7 Oct. 1434 Edmund Tebott; Roger Walle, 1445; and John Bothe who resigned the hospital in 1495. 153 Dugdale appears to confuse this hospital with St. Andrew at Tarvin, which was in reality only a church granted to the hospital at Denwall. 154

The Hospital of the Holy Cross and St George, established for a master and brethren, stood at Wybunbury, Cheshire in the fifteenth century. 155

Alas, Thomas Cromwell has seen to it that no mediaeval hospital in Wales and few in the Border have substantially survived. The beautiful ruins of Ystrad Fflur ..............

.................and Margam were even more beautiful buildings. We should have to travel as did Dr. Sion Dafydd Rhys to the Ospedale del Ceppo, with its glorious della Robbia frieze, in the Italian town of Pistoia, where it is still a working hospital today to appreciate what we have lost. When Dr. Sion Dafydd Rhys returned from Siena to Blaen Cwm Llwch the work of destruction here had already begun and was largely accomplished.

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

JOHN CULE

Llandysul

Notes;

 

1 Binchy, D. A., Eriu, vol. XII, part 1, 1934, pp. 78-134. See also Cule, J., Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, vol. XXI, 3, 1966, pp. 213-236.

2 Bede, A History of the English Church and People, IV, 2. (transl. by Leo Sherley-Price. Rev. by R. E. Latham), Penguin Classics, Revised edition 1968, p. 206.

3 Talbot, C. H., Medicine in Mediaeval England, London, 1967, p. I1.

4 Bede, op. cit., V, 3, p. 273.

5 Talbot, C. H., op. cit., p. 16.

6 Clay, Rotha Mary, The Mediaeval Hospitals of England, London, 1966, pp. 4, 5.

7 Talbot, C. H., op. cit., p. 170.

8 Craster, O. E., Llanthony Priory, H.M.S.O., London, 1963.

9 Williams, G., The Welsh Church from Conquest to Reformation, Cardiff, 1962, pp. 20 & 24.

10 Rees, J. F., Studies in Welsh History, Cardiff, U. of Wales Press, 1947, p. 19.

11 Clark, John Willis, ed., The Observances in use at the Augustinian Priory of S. Giles & S. Andrew at Barmwell, Cambridge . . ., sections 44, 45.

12 Craster, O. E., op. cit.

13 Williams, G., op. cit., p. 19.

14 Arch. Camb., 1848, 1st series, vol. III, pp. 195-211.

15 Dugdale, W., Monasticon Anglicanum, London, 1846, vol. V, p. 632.

16 Williams, D. H., The Welsh Cistercians, Pontypool, 1970, p. 18, citing Williams, S. W., Strata Florida, 1889, 123.

17 Williams, D. H., op. cit., p. 52.

18 ibid., p. 21.

19 ibid., p. 18, citing Williams, S. W., op. cit., 92, 114, 127.

20 ibid., p. 18, citing Cowley, F. G., Monastic Order in South Wales, (Univ. of Wales, Ph.D. Thesis, 1965) 234 et seq.

21 Birch, Walter de Gray, A History of Margam Abbey, London, 1897, p. 77.

22 Williams, D. H., op. cit., p. 18, citing N.L.W. MS. Badminton 1657, .4 r.

23 ibid., p. 18, citing Giraldus Cambrensis, Speculum Ecclesie, (Rolls Series), iv, 200-203.

24 Bede, op. cit., iv, 24, p. 253.

25 Dugdale, W., op. cit., Vol. VI, 2, p. 767.

26 Dugdale, W., op. cit., Vol. IV, p. 595.

27 Radford, C. A. Ralegh, St. Dogmaels Abbey, London, H.M.S.O., 1962.

28 Harleian MS 1249, fol. 130b. (A translation in Arch. Camb., 4th Series, vii, 3).

29 Cal. Patent Rolls, 6 Edward III, Pt. 2, m. 11, 1332.

30 Cal. Patent Rolls, 8 Edward III, Pt 2, m. 28, 1334.

31 Williams, G., op. cit., p. 137, fn 2.

32 Cal. Patent Rolls, 35 Edward III, Pt 2,  m.8, 1361.

33 Harleian MS 1249, fol. 81.

34 Cal. Patent Rolls, 5 Richard II, Pt 2, m. 21, 1382.

35 Cal. Patent Rolls. 3 Henry IV, Pt 1, m. 28, 1401.

36 Rees, W., A History of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem in Wales and on the Welsh Border, Cardiff, 1947, p. 35.

37 Cal. Papal Registers, 1417-1431, Vol. VII, p. 107.

38 Lambeth Palace Library (Tenisonian) MS. 639, fol. 368.

39 Williams, G., op. cit., p. 316.

40 Portsmouth, O.S. in Gower, 20, 1969, pp. 25-34.

41 Dugdale, W., op. cit., Vol. VI, Pt. 2, p. 783.

42 Cal. of Various Chancery Rolls, p. 333 vide Cal. of Welsh Rolls, 19 Edward I, m. 6, 1291.

43 Episcopal Registers of the Diocese of St Davids 1397-1518, 3 vols. Vol. I. (1397-1407), London, (Cymmrodorion Record Series No. 6), 1917, pp. 301, 387, 388.

44 Cal. Patent Rolls, 26 Henry VI, Pt I, m. 28, 1447.

45 Owen, George, The Description of Pembrokeshire, (ed. Henry Owen), London, 1892, Vol. 1, pp. 21, 23.

46 Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Wales and Monmouthshire, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions in Wales and Monmouthshire, H.M.S.O., 1925, VII, County of Pembroke, p. 397 citing PRO Chantry Certificates, No. 75, S. Wales.

47 Jones, F., Holy Wells of Wales, Cardiff, 1954, p. 208.

48 Inventory of the Ancient Monuments, op. cit., p. 398 citing Leland.

49 Norris, C., Etchings of Tenby, London, 1812, p. 59 with a plate of the ruined St. John's Hospital, dated 1812.

50 Inventory of the Ancient Monuments, op. cit., p. 398.

51 ibid., p. 335.

52 ibid., p. 334.

53 Cal. Close Rolls, 20 Henry III, m. 13, 1236.

54 Cal. Patent Rolls, 9 Henry IV, Pt, I, m. 12, 1408.

55 The account of the history of the Order of St. John is taken principally from Rees, William, A History of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem in Wales and on the Welsh Border, Cardiff, 1947.

56 Rees, W., op. cit., p. 22.

57 Price, John, An historical account of the City of Hereford, Hereford, 1796, pp. 148, 149, 150, 214, 215, 217.

58 ibid., p. 231.

59 ibid., p. 152.

60 Rees, W., op. cit., pp. 60, 61.

61 ibid., p. 31.

62 ibid., p. 25.

63 ibid., p. 113.

64 ibid., pp, 66, 69, 71.

65 ibid., p. 32.

66 Prynne, W., The third tome of an exact chronological vindication and historical demonstration of our British ...Kings supreme ecclesiastical jurisdiction ..., London, T. Radcliffe & T. Daniel for the author, 1668, pp. 1240-41.(Supplemental Appendix Vol. III).

67 Arch. Camb., 1847, Vol. II, p. 255 and 1848, Vol. III, p. 48.

68 Lewis, S., Topographical Dictionary of Wales, London, 1833, Vol. 2, vide Ruthin.

69 ibid.

70 Blome, Richard, Britannia ..., London, 1673, p. 284.

71 Heywood, A., Guide to Llanrwst and Bettws y Coed, (Series of Penny Guides), Manchester, [1870].

72 Dineley, T., The Account of the Official Progress of His Grace Henry the first Duke of Beaufort through Wales in 1684, London, 1888, p. 147.

73 Willis, Browne, A Survey of the Cathedral Church of Bangor, London, 1721, p. 48.

74 Charles, B. G., Calendar of the Records of the Borough of Haverfordwest 1539-1660, Cardiff, 1967

75 Lambeth Palace Library Charters and Miscellaneous MSS VI, 46, f. 129r.

76 Lambeth Palace Library (Tenisonian) MS 639, f. 355.

77 ibid., ff. 356-7.

78 ibid., f . 358-360. The Statutes of the Hospital at Penmynydd may be found in ff. 361-2v.

79 Price, J., op. cit., pp. 151-2.

80 Duncumb, J., Collections towards the History and Antiquities of the County of Hereford, 1804, Vol. 1, p. 432.

81 Dugdale, W., op. cit., Vol. VI, 2, p. 762 citing Harleian MS 396, f 50 and Harleian MS 4343, n. 2.

82 ibid., p. 762 citing Tanner.

83 Cal. Patent Rolls, 23 Edward I, m. 13, 1295.

84 Cal. Patent Rolls, 27 Edward I, m. 28, 1299.

85 Clay, R. M., op. cit., p. 208.

86 Price, J., op. cit., p. 153.

87 Price, J., op. cit., part of the Deed of Settlement of Kerry's Hospital is given in an Appendix.

88 Price, J., op. cit., p. 153.

89 Duncumb, J., op. cit., pp. 395-6.

90 Duncumb, J., op. cit., pp. 390-91.

91 Price J., op. cit., pp. 150-151.

92 Clay, R. M., op. cit., p. 267.

93 Dugdale, W., op. cit., VI, 2, p. 762 citing Cart. II, Henry II, Pat. 1, n. 71.

94 Price, J., op. cit., p. 152.

95 Duncumb, J., op. cit., p. 392. Price, J., op. cit., p. 153.

96 Knowles, D. and Hadcock, R. N., Mediaeval Religious Houses: England and Wales, London, 1953, p. 276.

97 Clay, R. M., op. cit., p. 46.

98 Knowles and Hadcock, op. cit., p. 276 citing the additional notes supplied by Rotha Mary Clay and the 'Will of Eliz. d'Audeley', Som. Rec. Soc., No. 19, p. 300.

99 ibid., p. 277 citing the additional notes supplied by Rotha Mary Clay and Deodands, ut supra, cf. Leland (ed. L. T. Smith), ii, 66-7.

100 Dugdale, op. cit., Vol. VI, 2, p. 685 citing a confirmation charter of 2, Ed. III (Pat Rolls 2 Ed III, Pt I, m. 21, 1328). The revenue quoted is of temp. 26 Hen VIII.

101 Clay, R. M., op. cit., p. 197.

102 Knowles and Hadcock, op. cit., p. 306.

103 Dugdale, op. cit., VI, Pt 2, p. 773.

104 Phillips, T., History and Antiquities of Shrewsbury, Shrewsbury, 1779. p. 114. Other references to the hospital are given by Phillips.

105 Cal. Pat. Rolls, 15 Richard II, Pt. I, m. 18 1391.

106 Cal. Patent Rolls, 17 Henry VI, Pt. 1, m. 9. 1439.

107 Knowles and Hadcock, op. cit., p. 306, citing Rotha Mary Clay, Mediaeval Hospitals of England, Tanner, p. 455 and Cranage, D.H.S., Churches of Shropshire, (1912), ii, 914.

108 Cal. Patent Rolls, 27 Henry VI, Pt 2, m. 15, 1449.

109 Knowles and Hadcock, op. cit., p. 306. Clay, R. M., op. cit., p. 356.

110 Phillips, T., op. cit., pp. 120-122.

111 Clay, R. M., op. cit., pp. 317

112 Phillips, T., op. cit., pp. 123-124.

113 Eyton, R. W., Antiquities of Shropshire, London 1854, Vol. I, pp. 343-5.

114 Knowles and Hadcock, op. cit., p. 257.

115 Cal. Patent Rolls, 18 Edward III, Pt 2, m. 32, 1344.

116 Cal. Patent Rolls, 19 Edward III, Pt I, m. 19, 1345.

117 Cal. Patent Rolls, 3 Henry IV, Pt. 2, m. 11, 1402.  ibid., 4 Henry IV, Pt. I, m. 27, 1402. ibid.,  4 Henry IV, Pt. 2, m. 18, 1403. ibid.,  4 Henry IV, Pt. 2, m. 10, 1403.

118 Calendar Patent Rolls, 6 Henry IV, Pt. 1, m. 15, 1405. ibid.,  6 Henry IV, Pt. 1, m. 34, 1405. ibid.,  10 Henry IV, Pt. 2, m. 25, 1409.

119 Cal. Patent Rolls, 17 Henry VI, Pt. 1, m. 9, 1439.

120 Knowles and Hadcock, op. cit., p. 257, citing additional notes by Rotha Mary Clay and Cant and York Soc, ix, Reg. Bp. Cantilupe, p. 305.

121 Dugdale, op. cit., VI, 2, 773.

122 Cal. Patent Rolls, 3 Edward I,  m.23, 1275.

123 Clay, R. M., op. cit., p. 316.

124 Knowles and Hadocck, op. cit., p. 289 citing additional notes by Rotha Mary Clay and Cathedral Registers, Extracts, (Cantilupe. Soc.) give the foundation date before 1121 A.D.

125 Knowles and Hadcock, ibid., citing Tanner, p. 445,

126 Cranage, D. H. S. Churches of Shropshire, (1901), pp. 124-5.

127 Knowles and Hadcock, ibid, citing additional notes by Rotha Mary Clay, and Reg. Mascall, p. 191; further record 1515, Erise, Reg. Mayew, (Canterbury & York Soc.) p. 287.

128 Knowles and Hadcock, ibid, citing additional notes by Rotha Mary Clay. The Hospital was rebuilt in 1500 and again in 1672. (Auden. J. E., Shropshire, 1912, p. 149).

129 Rees, W., op. cit., p. 69.

130 Knowles and Hadcock, op. cit., p. 314.

131 Clay, R. M., op. cit., p. 282.

132 Cal. Close Rolls, 25 Henry III, m. 4, 1241.

133 Cal. Fine Rolls. 28 Edward I, m. 8, 1300. ibid.,  1 Edward II, m. 15, 1307. ibid.,  2 Edward III, m. 2, 1328.

134 Cal. Patent Rolls, 3 Edward II, m. 36, 1309. ibid.,  4 Edward II, Pt 2, m. 26, 1311.

135 Cal. Patent Rolls, 9 Edward II, Pt. 2, m. 11, 18 June, 1316.

136 Cal. Patent Rolls, 15 Edward III, Pt. 2, m. 4, 1341.

137 Cal. Close Rolls, 3 Richard II, m. 38, 1379.

138 Cal. Patent Rolls, 3 Richard II, Pt. 1, m. 9, 1379

139 ibid.,   10 Richard II, Pt. 1, m. 1, Jan 6, 1386.

140 ibid.,   11 Richard II, Pt. 1, m. 11, Jan 6, 1388.

141 ibid.,   13 Richard II, Pt. 1, m. 10, Oct. 20, 1389.

142 ibid.,   14 Richard II, Pt. 1, m. 38, July 2, 1390.

143 ibid.,   14 Richard II, Pt. 2, m. 15, May 2, 1391.

144 ibid.,   16 Richard II, Pt. 3, m. 25, March 11, 1393.

145 ibid.,   16 Richard II, Pt. 3, m. 11, May 8, 1393.

146 ibid.,   17 Richard II, Pt. 2, m. 38, Feb 8, 1394.

147 ibid.,    21 Richard II, Pt. 2, m. 11, Feb 5, 1398.

148 ibid.,    22 Richard II, Pt. 1, m.  6, Sept 15, 1398.

149 Dugdale, op. cit., VI, 2, p. 756. Dugdale notes that a list of masters extracted from Stone's MSS. is given in Ormerod's History of Cheshire Vol. I, p. 276.

150 Massie, W. H., J. Architect, Arch. and Hist Soc. for Co. city and neighbourhood of Chester, Vol I, Chester, 1857 p. 179. Appendix Fig. 6 shows seal.

151 Dugdale, op. cit., VI, 2, p. 756 citing Tanner, and Vernon's Abstracts of the Lichfield Episcopal Registers (Harleian MSS 2077) and Harleian MSS 2074, f. 166.

152 Knowles and Hadcock, op. cit., p. 267, citing additional notes by Rotha Mary Clay and Reg. Stretton W Salt C.N.S., viii.

153 Dugdale, op. cit., VI, 2, 756 and note K.

154 Knowles and Hadcock, op. cit., p. 312. Note.

155 Dugdale, op. cit., VI, 2, 757, citing Tanner.