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 RELIGIOUS HOUSES that a reduction of the numbers on the foundation was gradually effected as a result of the report, for in 141 2 ^* there were ten poor women and not eighteen as before. Meanwhile the hospital had been adding to its resources: Edward III in 1376 made a per- petual grant of j^ 10 a year from the Hanaper for a chaplain to celebrate in the chantry founded by Queen Philippa,^* and left in trust for the hospital the reversion of the manor of Rushin- don in the Isle of Sheppey, and of a messuage, 60 acres of land, 200 acres of pasture, and 120 acres of salt marsh in the parish of Minster to provide another chaplain ; ^^ in 1378 Robert de Denton, who had intended to found a hospital for the insane in his messuages in the parish of Allhallows Barking, granted the property instead to St. Katharine's to establish a chantry ; '' John de Chichester, goldsmith of London, bequeathed to the hospital in 1380 lands and tenements in the parishes of St. Botolph Aldgate, St. Mary Abchurch, St. Edmund Lombard Street, and St. Nicholas Aeon for a similar purpose;'^ in 1 38 1 a messuage in Bow Lane was granted to St. Katharine's for daily celebrations for Thomas bishop of Durham ; " and in 1380 Richard II allowed the hospital to acquire in mortmain from the alien abbey of Isle Dieu the manor of Carlton, co. Wilts., and the advowson of the church of Upchurch, in Kent,''" in return for an annual payment of j^40 during the war with France and for the maintenance of three additional chantry chaplains. The hospital benefited considerably by the appointment of Thomas Beckington, the king's secretary, as master in 1440.*^ Henry VI not only gave to it in August of that year the manors of Chisenbury and Quarley, parcel of the alien priory of Ogbourne,^ but on Becking- ton's representing that the revenues of the house were still insufficient, he granted to it in 1441 an annual fair of twenty-one days from the feast of St. James, to be held on Tower Hill.*' He, moreover, exempted the hospital and precinct from all jurisdiction save that of the Lord Chan- '' John de Hermesthorp, the master, at that date left by will bequests to three brothers, three sisters, three secular chaplains, and ten poor women of St. Katharine's. Ducarel, op. cit. 13. " Ca/. of Pat. 1377-81, p. 151 ; Anct. D. (P.R.O.), D. 973. "^ The reversion was made over to the hospital by the trustees in 1392. Cal. of Pat. 1 391-6, p. 50. " Cal. of Pat. 1377-81, p. 266. " Sharpe, Cal. of Wills, ii, 219. " Cal. of Pat. 1377-81, p. 613. "Ibid. 559. " Ducarel, op. cit. 14. " The charter is given in App. xii, op. cit. " Inspex. of Queen Elizabeth given in App. viii, op. cit. 56. cellor and the master," and acquitted it from payment of all aids, subsidies,*^ and clerical tenths ; *^ no royal stewards, marshals, or other royal officers were to lodge in the hospital or its houses without the consent of the master,*' and no royal purveyor was to take the goods and chattels of the hospital against the master's wish ; *^ the master was to have court-leet and view of frankpledge within the bounds of the hospital ; *' and the master, brothers, and sisters were to have the chattels of felons, fugitives and suicides, waifs and strays, deodands and treasure trove,'" assize of bread and ale, custody of weights and measures, the cognizance and punish- ment of all offences against the peace in the same place,'^ and the cognizance of all pleas and the fines and amercements of all persons residing in the precinct ; ''"' any writs they needed were to be given to them free of all payment ; '' they were not to be deprived of any of the above privileges because they neglected to use them." John Holland, duke of Exeter, who died in 1448, was buried in the church of St. Katha- rine, to which he made an important bequest of plate" and tapestry. He also directed that in the little chapel where his body rested a chantry of four priests should be erected, to be endowed with his manor of Great Gaddesden in Hertford- shire, though apparently some other endowment was arranged, for the manor figures in the posses- sions of his son Henry, on whose death it passed to the crown.'* The general pardon to the warden, brethren, and sisters on the accession of Henry VIII " must have been a matter of form, since it is evident that the hospital enjoyed the favour of both Henry VII and Henry VIII : at the funeral of the former the large sum of ^^40 was given to the sisters ; '* Henry VIII '' and Queen Catherine established in the hospital church in 1578 a Gild of St. Barbara, to which belonged Cardinal Wolsey, the duke of Norfolk, the duke of Buckingham, and many other dis- " Ibid. 56. « Ibid. 59. « Ibid. « Ibid. « Ibid. 60. "> Ibid. " Ibid. 58. " Ibid. " Ibid. 60. " Ibid. 61. " To the high altar a cup of beryl garnished writh gold, pearls, and precious stones, a chalice of gold and all the furniture of his chapel except a chalice, eleven basins, eleven candlesticks of silver with eleven pairs of vestments, a mass-book, a ' paxbred,' and a couple of silver cruets which were to be given to the chapel in which he was buried. Ibid. 17-18. '^ Chauncy, Hist, of Herts. 559-60. " Ducarel, op. cit. 20. '» L. and P. Hen. Vlll, i, 5735. " If this had not been a favourite foundation of Henry VIII the bishop of Famagosta would not have sent certain relics to the king in 15 12 out of respect for the hospital. Ibid, i, 3456. 527
 * ' Ibid. 57