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 RELIGIOUS HOUSES Alexander Collins, prior of the Benedictine house of Daventry, whom he gave leave to change his order. When another vacancy seemed likely to occur in 1528 the king hoped that Wolsey would again secure the patronage ■" in which he expected to share, but this time the brothers asked the bishop of London to nominate, and Edward Staple was chosen.'" This continual delegation of powers may have been a diplomatic move to secure powerful interest and protection. The pope in granting a dispensation in 1532 to John Brereton, one of the king's chaplains, to accept the hospital if it were offered to him, de- scribed the house as much in debt, its buildings greatly in need of repair, and its property de- teriorated in value, and he suggested that Brereton as master might be able to relieve the hospital as he was already amply provided with benefices.^' When Staple resigned his office it must have been a foregone conclusion that it would be given to Brereton, for he procured the king's ratification '^ of the papal bull about three weeks before he was appointed by Richard Gwent, to whom the brothers had committed the nomina- tion." In the circumstances it was hardly likely that any difficulty would be raised as to the acknow- ledgement of the royal supremacy, subscription to which was duly made in June 1534 by Brereton and three others.'* Amid the general dissolution Sir Richard Gresham's appeal for the continuance of certain London hospitals '' was successful as regards St. Bartholomew's, which was recon- stituted in 1544.'^ The hospital, which in 1532 had consisted of. a master and eight brethren," was now to be composed of a master and four chaplains, namely, vice-master, curate, hospitaller, and visitor of the prisoners at Newgate,'* and to these were added as before sisters to care for the sick. In 1547, however, another change took place : the king gave the hospital to the City, and it was then arranged that the vicar of the church and a hospitaller should minister to the spiritual needs of the sick inmates.'' Some of the property of the hospital was granted with it, but the house needed to be re- furnished,^" and to a large extent to be re-endowed, •' L. and P. Hen. Vlll, iv (2), 4335. '" Lend. Epis. Reg. Tunstall, fol. 87-IOI. " Ibid. Stokesley, fol. 91. " L. and P. Hen. Vlll, v, 1370 (13). " Lend. Epis. Reg. Stokesley, fol. 91-2. " L. and P. Hen. Fill, vii, 921. " Ibid, xiii (2), 492. '« Ibid, xix (1), 812 (80). " According to the bull of Pope Clement VII, Lond. Epis. Reg. Stokesley, fol. 91. '» L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xix (i;, 812 (80). " Memoranda and Documents relating to the Royal Hospitals, App. iv, v. ° Moore, op. cit. 25. Rebuilding may have been necessary, too, for there is a note, Oct. 1546, in the Repertories of the Common Council, xi, fol. 288, of the Lord Mayor's engagement to finish the new hospital in Smithfield. • and the citizens made liberal donations to this work.^' The business of the house was entrusted to twelve governors, of whom four were alder- men, who were chosen by the Lord Mayor and held office for two years, six retiring every year.*'* Sick and wounded soldiers and sailors found a refuge there both in 1627 *^ and in 1644,' when in consideration of its services in this respect its lands were freed from assess- ment.i^* In the Dutch War of 1664*' and during the war with France in 1705 ^* the government again made use of the hospital. An account of the City hospitals in 1667 estimates the number of persons relieved in that year at 1,383, and those then in the hospital at 196.^' Much of its income was derived from property in London, so that it naturally was much affected by the Fire,^* and on this account the king gave permission to the governors for a time to turn the rooms in the Great Cloister into shops.** Commissioners were appointed by William III in August 1691 to visit St. Bartholomew's among the royal foundations within the City,™ but the result of the visitation has not been reported. The religious side of the house, which still had some degree of prominence in 1544, seems to have become of less and less importance, and is not touched upon at all in a description of the hospital in 1800.'' In the Falor the revenues of the hospital are represented as £,27^ '3^* ^'^^ gross and time comprised rents and farms in London valued at ^^292 4J. dd. per annum ; the manor of Ducketts in Tottenham and Harringay which had been made over to the house in 1460 by the feoffees of John Sturgeon to endow a chantry ;'* the manor or farm of Clitterhouse,'* rents and ferms in ' Alrichesbiri,' where the masters and brothers had a holding in 1241 ;" Hackney Marsh, Cudfield Marsh, Willesden and ' Lyme- " Stow, op. cit. iii, 234. "" Moore, op. cit. 28-9. «' Cal. ofS.P. Dom. 1627-8, p. 455. " Ibid. 1628-49, PP- 668-9. " Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vi, App. i, 36. «> Cal. ofS.P. Dom. 1664-5, P- 1 14 ; ibid. 1665-6, p. 6. "« Cal. of Treat. Papers, 365. «' Cal. ofS.P. Dom. 1667, p. 21. «« Ibid. «' Ibid. Oct. 1668-9, p. 139. '" Ibid. 1690-1, pp. 473-4. " Moore, op. cit. 27. " Valor EccL (Rec. Com.), i, 388. " Harl. MS. 433, fol. 296 ; Lysons, Envir. of Lond. iii, 50. " It appears to have acquired this property in Hendon in 1446. Pat. 24 Hen. VI, pt. I, m. 5, quoted in Tanner, Notit. Mon. ; Lysons, op. cit. iii, 6. " Doc. of D. and C. of St. Paul's, A. Box 24, No. 608. A settlement was then made with the precentor of St. Paul's, who claimed it for his prebend of Port- pool. Its property there was called a manor in 1326. Cal. of Pat. 1324-7, p. 270. 523
 * ^305 6s. e,d. net.'^ Its possessions at that