Page:History and characteristics of Bishop Auckland.djvu/160

 THE BEADHOUSES* CHARITY. This refuge for the decayed poor was founded by Bishop Cosin, for the benefit of four persons. The original charter of endowment bears date the 14th September, 1669, and states that he had granted and confirmed to Robert Harrison, Eichard Smelt, Christopher Robson, John Allenson, James Whiston, and Ealph Walker, six messuages, burgages, or tenements, with the gardens to the same adjoining and belonging, in his vill of Bishop Auckland, and divers parcels of waste land in the Market-place of the same vill, adjoining to a house some time since erected by Sir Arthur Haslerigg, Baxonet, which six messuages lie to the north-east of the Market-place aforesaid, on the east of the public bakehouset ; on the south by divers burgages, one of which was in the tenure or occupation of Jane Slater, widow, and another in the tenure or occupation of Elizabeth LampsoH; widow ; adjoining the Castle gardens and park of Auckland on the east ; and a house and dose of William Heaviside on the west ; near a close of William Shaw on the north ; and the King's way on the soutL He also confirmed to them the hospital or house erected upon the waste, and also all and singular the profits, commodities, rents, possessions, liberties, and privileges to the same belonging and appertaining. They were to hold the said hospital or house, with their appurtenances, to the said Robert Harrison, Richard Smelt, Christopher Robson, John Allenson, James Whiston, and Ralph Walker, their heirs and assigns for ever ; yielding yearly to the King, for the Bishop and his successors, at Pentecost and St. Martin, the sum of Is. 6d. for the above six burgages, and a like sum for the messuages in the occupation of Elizabeth Lampson. The Bishop further granted and confirmed that the aforesaid house or hospital should have and contain four poor persons, two men, and the like number of women, for whose benefit Sir Gilbert Gerrard, of St Martin, in the county of Middlesex (who was son-in-law to Bishop Cosin), and Miles Stapylton, of the city of Durham, Esq., made the following augmentation to its funds: — They were to have 30s. at the four usual terms annually ; also 408. which, by the generosity of tiie above Sir Gilbert Gerrard and Miles Stapylton, was retained by them for providing gowns or cloaks for the inmates of the hospital every three years. A further sum of 20s. was also granted by the two above gentlemen, 6s. 8d- of which was intended for the repairs of the house, and 13s. 4d., the remainder, for a dinner at the feast of St Andrew. The Bishop directed that the four persons were to be bachelors or widows, of honest fame and pious conversation, and to be sixty years of age, or not less than fifty-five, bom and having lived not less than twenty years within the parish of St. Andrew's Auckland. He appointed as the first inmates Christopher Joseph Lax, Stephen Wright, Mary Robson, and Margaret Coates, who were to reside within the hospital for their lives, and lead pious lives, and attend the chapel of St Peter, in Auckland Castle daily, with all decency and modesty, in the place appointed for them. Bishop Crewe also augmented their stipend by the annual sum of £4, and Bishop Barrington by that of £20 per year. The other portion of their income is derived from a house and orchard in the comer of Silver-street, and near the entrance or gate- way of the old college, and also from a ground-rent of a lease taken by the Town Hall and Market Company, as on the ground on which the Town Hall is built, stood the original property mentioned in the above-named charter. The original houses in which the alms-people were located were some few years since razed to the ground by Bishop Maltby, and the present more suitable structure built on the site. The following is a copy of the original grant to Robert Harrison and others : — De totds illis sex messnagiiB domibiis bturgagiiB fiye tenementis cam Oardinis eisdem jacentibus et pertinentibiiBi • It WB8 formerly » condition of these oharitiee that the penKniB deriYinff benefit from them ihoold offer up dally certain prayer* for their foandera The prayere oonsisted of a portion of the Catholic devotion called the ** Rosary/' in which a string of beada are need called « The Bosary Beads." Hence the term " Beadhonses." t The wynd between the east end of St Ann's Chapel and the Beadhonses is stOl known as Bake-hoose-hilL In the ezpensa rolls of Kshop Lsngley we find an item "for a new bottmn for the common oren of AnUand." Digitized by Google