48. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. KATHERINE, SHOREHAM
This hospital is only known for its occurrence
in mediaeval wills. Thus Margaret Covert left
2s. to the poor of the hospital of St. Katherine of
Shoreham in 1366, (fn. 1) and John Borle, rector of
West Tarring, left 6s. 8d. to 'the house of St.
Katherine by Shoreham' in 1373. (fn. 2) It would
seem to have survived the religious changes of
the Reformation by abandoning its patroness,
and becoming 'the hospital of Our Saviour Jesus
Christ,' if we may judge from the prominence given to St. Katherine's emblem on the
sixteenth-century seal, by which alone the existence of this hospital of the Saviour is known.
If this conjecture is correct the reconstituted hospital was no doubt 'the spytyll at Shoreham' to
which Henry Marshall, vicar of Wilmington,
left 20 pence in 1550. (fn. 3)
The seal just referred to is a pointed oval:
Our Lord on the cross on a mount between two
trees of peculiar form. In base, a Catherine
wheel. (fn. 4) Legend:—
+ THE . wELE . OF O' . SAVIOVR .
IESVS . CHRIST . OF . THE . OSPITAL . OF .
SHORAM . IN . SVSSEX .
Footnotes
| 1 |
Cartwright, Hist. of Rape of Bramber, 120. |
| 2 |
Cant. Archiepis. Reg. Whittlesey, fol. 127b. |
| 3 |
Suss. Arch. Coll. xxiii, 52. |
| 4 |
B. M. lxxii, 110. |