Hospitals: St Augustine Pappey

A History of the County of London: Volume 1, London Within the Bars, Westminster and Southwark. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1909.

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'Hospitals: St Augustine Pappey', in A History of the County of London: Volume 1, London Within the Bars, Westminster and Southwark, (London, 1909) pp. 550-551. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/london/vol1/pp550-551 [accessed 18 March 2024]

In this section

30. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. AUGUSTINE PAPPEY

The miserable condition to which old and infirm priests were often reduced caused three chaplains of London, William Cleve, priest of a chantry in St. Mary Aldermary, William Barnaby, chantry priest in St. Paul's, and John Stafford, to found a Fraternity of Charity and St. John the Evangelist in their (fn. 1) aid in 1442. (fn. 2) For their purpose they obtained from Thomas Symmeson, the parson of Allhallows London Wall, the chapel of St. Augustine Pappey, once a parish church, but shortly before united to Allhallows', (fn. 3) the churchyard which had been bequeathed by William Cressewyk in 1405 to St. Augustine's, (fn. 4) and a house and garden adjoining. The fraternity as usual comprised both men and women, (fn. 5) but in this case the brothers were all to be priests (fn. 6); it was a corporation, having perpetual succession and a common seal. (fn. 7) The government was in the hands of a master and two wardens elected every year by the brothers from their own numbers, (fn. 8) with the proviso that no member of the fraternity of sixty priests should be chosen for the posts. (fn. 9) These officers made ordinances for the regulation of the society, (fn. 10) received the money collected from the brothers and sisters, and expended it as needed, (fn. 11) the brothers auditing once a year the accounts, which the wardens had to inscribe in a great register. (fn. 12)

The poor priests for whose benefit the gild had been established were given shelter, food and firing in the house close to the church, (fn. 13) and those who had been masters or wardens, and whose conduct during office had been exemplary, received in addition an allowance of 8d. or 6d. a week. (fn. 14)

The hospital came to an end with the suppression of the fraternities under Edward VI. Sir Robert Foxe, the master, and five other priests had pensions varying from 66s. 8d. to 40s. assigned to them, (fn. 15) and four of the number were still in receipt of these allowances in 1556. (fn. 16)

The property of the brotherhood, valued in 1548 at £24 11s. 8d. net per annum, consisted in part of the house where the priests lived, the farm of St. Augustine's and of the garden near, a tenement at Baynard Castle, and two messuages and six cottages in the parish of St. Michael-leQuerne. (fn. 17) The brothers may also have had a messuage in Paternoster Row which had been left to them in 1536, (fn. 18) but they had sold the cemetery of Pappey church in 1538. (fn. 19) A large part of their income had probably been derived from the contributions and fines of members of the society, (fn. 20) and bequests of money made to them (fn. 21) for their prayers.

Masters of St. Augustine's Hospital, Pappey (fn. 22)

John Welles held office in 1442
William Sayer, elected 1448
John Pynchebeke, elected 1449
William Leeke, elected 1459
John Colyn, elected 1460–1
Robert Gretham, elected 1462
Ralph Kytson, elected 1463–5
John Hede, elected 1466
John Bolte, elected 1479
Thomas Praty, elected 1480
John Bell, elected 1481
John Pyrules, elected 1482–3
John Sclater
William Smythe
William Hulnesdale
Peter Corffe
Ralph Creke
Thomas Ashborne, elected 1504–7
Thomas Daw, elected 1508
George Done (fn. 23)
William Robinson, elected 1519
Thomas Houghton, elected 1520–1
William Hartopp, elected 1522
George Done, elected 1523
John More, elected 1524–5
William Basse, elected 1526
George Dune, elected 1534–5
Humphrey Town, elected 1536
George Dune, elected 1537
Robert Haune, elected 1538–9
Robert Fox, elected 1540
John —
John Benson
Robert Fox (fn. 24)

Footnotes

  • 1. Pat. 22 Hen. VI, pt. 3, m. 27.
  • 2. The date is given by Stow as 1430, but for the later date see Hugo, 'The hospital of the Papey,' Lond. and Midd. Arch. Soc. Trans. v, 196.
  • 3. The churches were united by William Grey, bishop of London, 1426–31. Newcourt, Repert. Eccl. Lond. i, 258.
  • 4. Pat. 22 Hen. VI, pt. 3, m. 27.
  • 5. Cott. MS. Vit. F. xvi, fol. 114b.
  • 6. Ibid. fol. 116b.
  • 7. Ibid. fol. 113b.
  • 8. Cott. MS. Vit. F. xvi, fol. 114b.
  • 9. Ibid. fol. 116b. If this brotherhood was first established in 1466 (Cal. of Pat. 1461–7, p. 516), the rules of the Pappey must have been made some years after the foundation.
  • 10. Cott. MS. Vit. F. xvi, fol. 114.
  • 11. Ibid. fol. 115.
  • 12. Ibid. fol. 115b.
  • 13. Pat. 22 Hen. VI, pt. 3, m. 27; Stow, Surv. of Lond. (ed. Strype), ii, 73.
  • 14. Cott. MS. Vit. F. xvi, fol. 116b.
  • 15. Chant. Cert. No. 88, m. 7; Lond. and Midd. Arch. Soc. Trans. v, 204.
  • 16. Add. MS. 8102, fol. 4.
  • 17. Lond. and Midd. Arch. Soc. Trans. v, 197–204.
  • 18. Sharpe, Cal. of Wills, ii, 642.
  • 19. Guildhall MS. 41, fol. 528.
  • 20. Brothers speaking ill of the master or wardens had to pay 12d. to the use of the poor priests. Cott. MS. Vit. F. xvi, fol. 117.
  • 21. Edmond Alynson in 1570 bequeathed 'to the common hutch of the broderhode off Pappe 10s.' Lond. Epis. Reg. Fitz James, pt. 2, fol. 5. The widow of Sir John Milbourne left them 10s. to come to her funeral and pray for her soul. Stow, op. cit. ii, 73. See also Lond. Epis. Reg. Bonner, fol. 181b, 191.
  • 22. Cott. MS. Vit. F. xvi, fol. 119b–23. The MS. is much injured, so that there are large gaps in the list.
  • 23. He held office for three years.
  • 24. Fox held the office two years in succession and was the last master.