HOSPITALS
17. HOSPITAL OF ST. MARY MAGDALEN, PRESTON
The precise date of the foundation of this
leper hospital does not appear. It is first
mentioned in letters of protection granted by
Henry II after 1177. (fn. 1) Its position does not
seem to be known exactly, but is supposed to
have been near the present church of St.
Walburge. (fn. 2) The patronage of the hospital
always belonged to the lords of the honour of
Lancaster, (fn. 2a) and it possessed a free chapel, i. e.
exempt from the jurisdiction of the ordinary.
This was the only free chapel in the county.
The hospital consisted of a warden and leper
brethren and sisters, but the number of the
inmates and the rule by which they lived are
unknown. (fn. 3) From the fourteenth century at
latest the wardens seem to have been often, if
not always, pluralists and non-residents. A
chaplain served the chapel. While the pestilence was raging in the autumn of 1349 the
chaplaincy was vacant for eight weeks, during
which period the offerings in the chapel were
asserted to have been no less than £32. (fn. 4) In
1355 Duke Henry of Lancaster, the patron,
procured from the pope a relaxation of one year
and forty days' penance for penitents visiting the
chapel on the principal feasts of the year and
those of St. Mary Magdalen and St. Thomas
of Canterbury. (fn. 5) During one of these pilgrimages, on the feast of the Invention of the Cross
(3 May) 1358, certain riotous persons, among
whom was the schoolmaster of Preston, invaded
the chapel, and some of them were kept prisoners
there for the whole of the day following. (fn. 6)
A few years later the right of the warden
and brethren to the offerings made in the chapel
seems to have been disputed, for Pope Urban V
in March, 1364, ordered the archbishop of
York to summon the rector of the parish and
others concerned, and if the facts were as represented to him to allow the warden and brethren
to receive to their use the voluntary offerings,
'wherein the revenues of the hospital chiefly
consist.' (fn. 7) A century later, in 1465, a royal
injunction forbad the. dean and chapter of the
College of Leicester, the appropriators of the
parish church, to persist in taking tithe from the
incumbent of the 'Free chapel of St. Mary
Magdalene' on the ground belonging to the
chapel. (fn. 8) By this time the hospital had apparently fallen into disuse, and presentations were
now made not to the wardenship but to the
practically sinecure incumbency of the free
chapel. The chapel itself was allowed to fall into
decay. Thomas Barlow, the last incumbent,
leased the chapel and its lands about 1525 to
James Walton for 20 years at a rent of
£7 6s. 8d., the lessee undertaking to repair the
chapel and to find a priest to say mass once a
week for the king's preservation.
Walton afterwards claimed to have transferred
this obligation to the Franciscan convent at
Preston, with a lease of a parcel of land called
'Widowfield ' at a yearly rent of 9 shillings.
The friars, however, asserted that the land was
their own and the 9 shillings a quitrent, though
their warden ultimately admitted that 'for peace
and quietness he signed a bill that Walton made
and wrote.' In January, 1528, two of the
friars and others forcibly entered upon the
field. Walton laid a complaint before the
Chancellor of the Duchy, but in May, 1545,
the land was again seized by his opponents, who
pulled down the mansion house attached to the
chapel and carried off the ornaments of the
chapel itself. (fn. 9)
The Chantry Commissioners of 1546 in their
certificate refer to Barlow's lease to Walton, and
add that 'the said chapel is defaced and open at
both ends.' Its plate, including a chalice,
weighed eight ounces; there was one vestment
and one bell. The chapel lands, which lay
almost entirely in the fields of Preston, comprised 58 acres with a clear annual rental of
£5 12s. 8d. (fn. 10) In 1548 the chapel was dissolved,
and with its lands, now estimated at 47½ acres
only, leased on 2 June to Richard Wrightington
for twenty-one years at a yearly rent of
£5 16s. 8d. Shortly afterwards Edward VI
granted (18 April, 1549) the whole of the 'Maudlands' property to John Dodyngton and William
Warde of London, gentlemen. They sold it in
January, 1550, to Thomas Fleetwood of Hesketh, from whom it was purchased some ten
years later (2 December, 1560) for £300 by
Thomas Fleetwood of Penwortham. (fn. 11)
Wardens of St. Mary Magdalen's Hospital
William, (fn. 12) occurs circa 1245
John of Coleham, (fn. 13) occurs 1270
Adam de Preston, (fn. 14) occurs 1313, died 1322
John Coupland, (fn. 15) appointed by the crown 30 May, 1322
John son of Richard de Rivers, (fn. 16) occurs 1331
Henry de Dale, (fn. 17) occurs 1345 and 1347
Pascal de Bononia (fn. 18) (Bologna), occurs 1355
Walter Campden, (fn. 19) occurs 1366, died 1370
Ralph de Erghum (Arkholme), (fn. 20) occurs 1373
Thomas Horston, (fn. 21) occurs 1399
Thomas Prowett, (fn. 21a) before 1480
James Standish, (fn. 22) appointed 18 August, 1486
Thomas Barlow, (fn. 23) appointed 6 February, 1522, surrendered 1548.
The matrix of the common seal of the hospital is preserved in the Fitzwilliam Museum,
Cambridge. It is oval pointed. In the centre,
within a niche, is a female figure, doubtless St.
Mary Magdalen, standing with a flower-pot in
her left hand, and what has been conjectured to
be an ornamental ointment box in the right;
beneath her feet is represented a fleur-de-lis. The
legend runs—
SIGILLV: COMMVNE: FRATRVM: PRESTONE. (fn. 24)