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Rh and meaningless as the ordinary Deeds of Surrender.

The Valor Ecclesiasticus gives the clear in- come of the friars at Aylesbury as £3 2s. 5d. London valued the whole propertyclose, fields, garden and siteat £6 2s. 4d. ; the timber round the house was worth £6 13s. 4d.

Pointed oval seal, red in colour and chipped at the top, attached to the Deed of Surrender dated 1 October, 1538. The impression, which is somewhat indistinct, represents St. Francis to the right beneath a tree lifting up the right hand and holding in the left hand a pastoral staff. In the branches of the tree are two birds before him and on the left a friar kneeling. The whole may represent the story of St. Francis preaching to the birds. Legend : ... COMUNITATIS : FRA ... UM : AYLESBURIE.

The oldest hospital in Buckinghamshire seems to have been that of St. John Baptist at Aylesbury, which is said to have been founded during the reign of Henry I. by Robert Ilhale, William atte Hide, William son of Robert and John Palnok for the main- tenance of lepers and sick persons. The men of Aylesbury appointed the masters. It was endowed with a messuage and 21 acres of land and 4 acres of meadow in Aylesbury. The house had however fallen into great poverty by the reign of Edward III., and was united in 1384 with that of St. Leonard in the same town.

The hospital of St. Leonard at Aylesbury was founded apparently at about the same time as the Hospital of St. John Baptist, and was intended also to receive lepers. It was endowed with a messuage and 14 acres of land and 2 acres of meadow in Aylesbury, but fell into poverty at the same time as the hospital of St. John, and was united to it before 1384. Both had ceased to exist long before the suppression of the chantries. The founders' names are said to have been Samson son of William, Reginald Wauncy, and others. In 1360 Eleanor, Countess of Ormond, claimed to hold the ad- vowson as lady of the town of Aylesbury, and she is said to have presented John de Adyn- grave, John Synekere and another as masters. In 1384 Walter Bere was appointed master of the united hospitals by the king by reason of the wardship of the heir of James Butiller, Earl of Ormonde.

The hospital of St. John Baptist is men- tioned only once, under the year 1279, in the Hundred Rolls of this county, where it is stated that the master held one acre of land for which he paid id. yearly. It is just pos- sible that the chapel of St. John Baptist, be- longing to the hospital of St. Thomas of Aeon in London, and endowed with a chantry by Matthew Stratton in 1268, may have ori- ginally been the chapel of this hospital ; but this is mere conjecture.

The hospital of St. Laurence was founded, for the purpose of sheltering lepers, probably during the thirteenth century, though it is not mentioned earlier than the fourteenth. The master and brethren received an indul- gence in 1321 from Bishop Burghersh, to in- duce the faithful of the neighbourhood to contribute to their necessities. In 1337 it was stated that they had not enough for their livelihood unless they could be relieved by contributions from a somewhat wider circle, and they were consequently allowed to seek alms from those outside the town of Bucking- ham. In 1 347 a certain Gilbert of Bucking- ham endowed the hospital with lands of the value of 10 marks, out of compassion for the poverty of the master and brethren. The depreciation of property after the Great Pes- tilence probably made it impossible for the house to be maintained any longer. Nearly all the hospitals of the county came to an end at this period.