THE HOSPITAL OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST, CHESTER (fn. 1)
The hospital 'for the sustentation of poor and silly
persons' which stood outside the North Gate of Chester was probably founded by Ranulph III, Earl of
Chester, in the early 1190s. (fn. 2) He gave the site in free
alms and free of all services except the reception and
care of the poor and ordered that the brothers of the
hospital who travelled through Cheshire preaching
and collecting alms should be honourably treated. (fn. 3)
The earl's grant was made to the Virgin and All Saints
but within a few years the hospital had acquired its
dedication to St. John the Baptist and was usually
known as the Hospital of St. John without the North
Gate. (fn. 4) In the 13th century the hospital community,
apart from the poor and the sick, evidently consisted
of a prior, brethren, and lay servants living under
religious rule. (fn. 5) In 1241 the brethren were given
permission to build a chapel beyond the Foregate
(probably the North Gate). (fn. 6) The extensive privileges
given to the hospital by Ranulph III were a potential
cause of conflict and early in its history arrangements
were made to protect the interests of the existing
churches in Chester. It was agreed between the brethren of the hospital and the abbot of Chester that all
servants of the hospital wearing secular clothes, apart
from the gardener, the porter (claviger), the prior's
groom, and the woman who attended the sick, were to
pay tithes and offerings to the mother church of St.
Werburgh, as were those staying in the hospital and
wearing secular clothes; any servants engaging in trade
were also to pay tithes and offerings to the mother
church. Strangers and travellers, however, were
allowed to receive the sacraments and make offerings
at the hospital church. A similar agreement concerning
burial rights was reached in the early 13th century
with the abbot and convent of St. Werburgh's and the
dean of St. John's: the brethren of the hospital were
allowed to have a graveyard to bury the poor who died
there and also men and women in confraternity with
the hospital who had worn its habit in good health and
for at least eight days. (fn. 7)
Besides granting the site of the hospital and taking it
under his special protection Ranulph III agreed to
maintain three beds for the poor and infirm at the rate
of 1d. a day in alms for each pauper; these alms of £4
11s. a year were continued by the Crown after 1237
and were still paid in the 16th century. (fn. 8) By the early
14th century the hospital had endowments worth £31
4s. 10d. a year. (fn. 9) Several early grants of land, including
some in Lancashire, were made by those who were
among the witnesses of Ranulph III's charter or by
members of their families or other friends or officials
of the earl. (fn. 10) Members of the leading families of
Chester in the 13th century also made gifts to the
hospital, notably Ralph Saracen who gave a salt-house
in Nantwich and land in Allerton (Lancs.) which he
held of Cockersand Abbey. (fn. 11) In addition, the hospital
had acquired by 1316 property in Chester worth £13
13s. 10d. a year in rents. (fn. 12) Much of the property
outside Chester was alienated in return for small rent
charges, doubtless for reasons of convenience; an
inquiry in 1316 found that the improvident policy had
been carried out by successive priors in the later 13th
century. (fn. 13) In 1311 the master, William de Bache, was
said to have so impoverished the hospital as to impair
its work of mercy and hospitality and was removed
from office. (fn. 14) A succession of inquisitions held between
1311 and 1341 reveals that the constitution of the
hospital had undergone a transformation similar to
that of other hospitals at the period and it was
controlled by a master rather than a prior and chapter
of brethren. Three chaplains celebrated there daily:
two in the church and one in the hospital before the
feeble and infirm inmates. (fn. 15) The hospital was to take in
as many poor and sick as possible but thirteen beds
were to be kept ready for the poor and feeble of the
city; each inmate was to receive daily a loaf of bread, a
dish of pottage, half a gallon of ale, and a piece of meat
or fish. (fn. 16)
In 1316 twelve jurors from the city and twelve from
the county approved the transfer of the hospital to the
guardianship of Birkenhead priory, an institution
impoverished by the cost of providing hospitality to
travellers. The move, which had been planned five
years previously, proved to be beneficial to neither
institution. The priory took over the responsibility of
maintaining the services and almsgiving of the hospital
on inadequate and diminished resources. (fn. 17) There were
further alienations of hospital property by the priors of
Birkenhead and the annual revenues of the hospital
declined from £31 4s. 10d. in 1316 to £27 3s. 10d. in
1341. (fn. 18) In June 1341 the Black Prince took the hospital with its estates into his own hands because certain
duties were not being carried out and an inquiry was
ordered into its government. (fn. 19) Before the inquiry was
held the custody of the hospital, which was reported to
be 'burdened with heavy charges and suffering from
misrule', was given to a royal clerk. (fn. 20) The inquiry
found that the church, chapel, and hospital buildings
were not adequately roofed and that two large houses
had collapsed from age and lack of repair. (fn. 21) In the
following year some attempt was made to restore the
fortunes of the hospital: a grant of £6 13s. 4d. was
made from the profits of the trailbaston sessions of
1353 and in the same year two oaks were delivered
from Delamere Forest to repair the hospital buildings. (fn. 22) In 1365 an investigation was ordered into the
lands and rents of the hospital in case any were being
concealed. (fn. 23) Individual masters were also generous at
this period. John Brunham, a clerk of the Black Prince
and chamberlain of Chester, planned in 1365 to
endow a chantry in the hospital for himself and his
family, the king and the queen and all the benefactors
of the hospital; he also intended to endow a chaplain
to serve in the hospital chapel and a servant to tend the
sick. (fn. 24) He had evidently been granted a licence to
acquire lands in mortmain worth £10 a year, but did
not take it up. It is not known whether the plans were
carried out but after Brunham's death in 1379 his
executor handed over lands worth £7 19s. 2d. to the
new master to maintain a chaplain to celebrate daily
for the benefit of the king. (fn. 25) Brunham's successor, also
a clerk in royal service, left £20 in his will to the
hospital and the sisters there. (fn. 26) By the end of the 14th
century, however, the hospital was in difficulties again
and in June 1400 Henry, prince of Wales, took it and
its lands into his own hands. A visitation was ordered
but it is not known whether the commissioners, who
included the chamberlain of North Wales, the mayor
of Chester, and a royal justice, carried out their
investigation; the master, who had been suspended,
was reappointed in November 1400. (fn. 27)
In the later Middle Ages most of the masters must
have been non-resident with livings and official duties
elsewhere and it became the practice of such masters to
appoint chaplains to administer the hospital for them.
In 1396 Thomas Marton appointed Richard Lee to the
offices of chief priest in the hospital church and chief
administrator in the hospital for life with a salary of
eight marks from the revenues of the hospital and a
chamber between the hall and the barns of the hospital. (fn. 28) A similar grant was made by Robert Rothbury to
Thomas Grene in 1414: Grene was to have a chamber
standing at the end of the church and a part of the
garden for sowing seeds. (fn. 29) In 1414 Henry V confirmed
the privileges of the hospital and its tenants and
specified those privileges as freedom from jury service
and suit of court in the city and county and freedom
from local tolls and taxation; the hospital was also
entitled to collect amercements levied on its own men
and tenants in any court. (fn. 30) All those privileges were
claimed by the master in the 1499 quo warranto
inquiries with an additional claim to a fishing boat
in the Dee. (fn. 31) Nevertheless, the hospital remained
impoverished and was exempted from taxation in the
later 15th century. (fn. 32) It continued to receive occasional
small gifts and legacies of money and it was doubtless
to attract those that it was claimed in 1493 that the
bishops of Coventry and Lichfield had given 40 days of
indulgence to benefactors since its foundation. It was
also said, by a messenger exhibiting a new indulgence,
that four masses were said daily in the hospital church,
two for living and two for dead benefactors, and in
addition prayers were asked each Sunday in 18,000
churches and chapels for the members of the hospital's
confraternity. At this time twelve poor and sick men
and women were housed in the hospital. (fn. 33) There were
complaints from the city authorities in the 1520s that,
in the absence of the master, the hospital's constitution
was not being properly observed and, in particular,
'foreign people' were being given places. The master
pointed out that the revenues of the hospital could not
maintain the full establishment of three chaplains and
thirteen almspeople and that the hospital was not
intended at its foundation to be exclusively for the
citizens of Chester, although, as he himself had been
brought up in Chester, he would be glad to give them
preference. (fn. 34) In 1535 the establishment consisted of a
non-resident master or 'prior', a chaplain celebrating
daily for the souls of the king and his ancestors for an
annual salary of £4 14s. 4d., supplemented by a fee of
£1 6s. 8d. for acting as a receiver, and six consores, the
widows of St. John's, who received 1d. a day. The
revenues of the hospital totalled £28 10s. 4d. and
consisted of £5 0s. 4d. in tithes from the church of
Aston-in-Hopedale, £4 11s. in royal alms and £18 19s.
in rents from property in the city of Chester, Hulmehouse (in Great Boughton), Barton, Edge, Pensby,
Blacon, and Nantwich, and in Allerton (Lancs.). By
then much of the property had been let on long
leases. (fn. 35)
The rôle of the hospital in housing the infirm poor of
the city of Chester doubtless saved it from dissolution
under the Act of 1547. The commissioners who visited
Chester in May 1553 to list church goods found
nothing worth selling in the hospital and distributed
the copes and ornaments to the poor, apart from a
silver-gilt chalice, four table-cloths, the service books
and a bell in the steeple which were entrusted to the
safe-keeping of the chaplain. (fn. 36) In the latter half of the
16th century many of the hospital's lands were leased
out for very long periods by a succession of unscrupulous masters and in 1601 a commission was appointed
to visit and reform the hospital. (fn. 37) The commissioners
found that the master, Richard Young, had not visited
the hospital for over three years as he had been
imprisoned for debt in Chester castle; nor could he
produce his letters of appointment and it was suspected that he had pawned them. He and his wife had
taken bribes to admit alms-women and he had
accepted payments to make long leases of hospital
property at low rents. He was also accused by the
hospital chaplain of removing the silver chalice used in
the church and chapel as a communion cup. Young
was immediately removed from the office of master. (fn. 38)
A description survives of the constitution of the hospital a few years after the incident. Prayers were read
daily in the chapel by a chaplain paid by the master
and the revenues of the hospital were collected by a
bailiff who was in charge of repairs to the chapel and
to the hospital building which was shared by six poor
widows. Each widow had a bedroom, a small
chamber, and a garden as well as an annual stipend. (fn. 39)
The chaplain was allowed a room and a garden and an
annual stipend of £5. (fn. 40) In February 1644 all the stone
buildings of the hospital and the surrounding wall
were demolished to prevent them giving cover during
the siege of Chester. (fn. 41) No trace is left of the original
hospital church or other buildings and nothing is
known of their appearance.
In June 1658 Oliver Cromwell granted the site and
the lands of the hospital and the office of keeper or
warden to the corporation; the mayor was to act as
warden and use the revenues to relieve the poor and
rebuild the hospital. (fn. 42) At the Restoration the corporation petitioned the Crown for the continuation of that
arrangement to relieve the increasingly numerous poor
in the city but the wardenship was granted for life to
Colonel Roger Whitley who is said to have rebuilt the
hospital. (fn. 43) In the charter of 1685 the corporation
secured the reversion of the wardenship with all the
hospital lands but, although Whitley died in 1697,
the corporation did not obtain the hospital seal
and records until 1703. (fn. 44) In 1717 new buildings
were erected on the site: a chapel and charity school
facing Northgate Street and, at the back, six singlestoreyed almshouses. The almswomen, or 'chapel-yard
widows', (fn. 45) were supported from the revenues of the
hospital lands but the bulk of the considerable income
of the hospital was diverted by the corporation for
other purposes. In 1835 it appeared that the corporation had grossly mismanaged the property: only £85 of
the annual income of £600 was applied to the purposes of the hospital, which included the repair of the
buildings, the stipend of a chaplain, and small allowances to the inmates. An action alleging misappropriation of funds was brought against the corporation in
Chancery and in 1836 the Lord Chancellor ordered the
appointment of a body of independent trustees to
administer the hospital estates, a move which the
corporation strenuously opposed until 1848. (fn. 46) The
almshouses have since been administered by trustees
under successive schemes of management. A scheme of
1892, still in operation in 1926, provided for the
support in the almshouses, with the assistance of a
chaplain and a beadle, of thirteen poor of either sex
and over 50 years of age who had been reduced by
misfortune from better circumstances; the numbers
and qualifications were thus similar to those found in
the 14th century.
Priors, Wardens, Masters or Keepers
Roger, occurs about 1200. (fn. 47)
Thomas of Pontefract, occurs 1239-40. (fn. 48)
Ralph of Smithdown, occurs 1245-6. (fn. 49)
Roger of Garston, occurs about 1255-6 and
1258-9. (fn. 50)
Hugh of Aston, occurs about 1285-6 and 1295-6. (fn. 51)
William, occurs 1304, 1306. (fn. 52)
William de Bache, appointed 1309, dismissed 1311. (fn. 53)
Thomas of Burton, appointed 1311, dismissed 1316. (fn. 54)
The prior and convent of Birkenhead, 1316 to
1341. (fn. 55)
Richard of Wilton, or Wolveston, appointed 1341,
occurs 1345. (fn. 56)
John Brunham the younger, occurs 1349-50, dead
by 1379. (fn. 57)
William Walsham, occurs 1379, dead by 1389. (fn. 58)
Thomas Marton, appointed 1389. (fn. 59)
John Maidenhith, appointed 1390. (fn. 60)
William Ashton, appointed 1391. (fn. 61)
William Hebden, appointed 1393. (fn. 62)
Thomas Marton, re-appointed 1394, resigned
1398. (fn. 63)
Robert Rothbury, appointed 1398, suspended and
reappointed 1400, occurs 1414. (fn. 64)
John Thornton, appointed 1426, occurs 1448. (fn. 65)
John Massey, appointed 1449, occurs 1470. (fn. 66)
William Thomas, appointed 1476. (fn. 67)
John Tesedale, appointed 1484. (fn. 68)
Thomas Crewe, appointed 1485, occurs 1523. (fn. 69)
Robert Johns, occurs 1535. (fn. 70)
Walter Buckler, appointed 1540. (fn. 71)
Richard Lyell, D.C.L., occurs 1553, died 1556. (fn. 72)
Thomas Haward, M.A., appointed 1556, resigned
1559. (fn. 73)
Thomas Huicke, LL.D., appointed 1559, resigned
1562. (fn. 74)
William Hayworth, appointed 1562, resigned
1564. (fn. 75)
David Phillips, appointed 1564, occurs 1566. (fn. 76)
Richard Young, appointed 1571, dismissed 1601. (fn. 77)
Peter Sharpe, B.A., B.D., appointed 1601, died
1616. (fn. 78)
George and William Hope, appointed 1616. (fn. 79)
The mayor and corporation of Chester, appointed
1658. (fn. 80)
Colonel Roger Whitley, appointed 1660, died
1697. (fn. 81)
The mayor and corporation of Chester, from 1697
to 1836. (fn. 82)
A seal in use from the early 13th century (fn. 83) is a
pointed oval depicting the standing figure of St. John
the Baptist in a hair-skin cloak; he holds in his left
hand a scourge of thistles and in his right a roundel
containing the lamb and cross. Legend, lombardic:
SIGILLUM SANCTI IOHANNIS HOPITALIS CESTRIE.
The trustees of the charity possess the matrix, dated
1730, (fn. 84) of another seal. It is a pointed oval 3¾ by 23/8 in.
and depicts St. John the Baptist standing on a platform
with radiant nimbus and hair-shirt; he holds a roundel
containing the lamb and cross in his left hand and
points to it with his right. On each side of the figure is
a kneeling angel holding up a thistle and in the base,
under a trefoiled arch, is a tonsured half-figure in
prayer. Legend, lombardic: SIGILLUM HOSPITALIS
SANCTI IOHANNIS BAPTISTE CESTRIE.