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: Jesus Commons', in A History of the County of London: Volume 1, London Within the Bars, Westminster and Southwark, (London, 1909) pp. 551. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/london/vol1/p551 [accessed 24 April 2024]
31. JESUS COMMONS
Stow speaks of a number of priests who lived together in Dowgate Ward in a house which had been left to them for that purpose, and which was well provided both with furniture and books. They were known as Jesus Commons, and were apparently a corporate body, filling up gaps in their ranks as they occurred through death or otherwise. (fn. 1) It is not impossible that the college was connected with a fraternity of priests to whom John Kyrketon, stockfishmonger, left a bequest at the end of the fourteenth century. (fn. 2)
Mention of it occurs in 1539, a priest reporting there words spoken by the parson of St. Mary Aldermary, (fn. 3) and again in 1543 when the parson of St. Ethelburga made to it a bequest of 7s. 6d. (fn. 4) It seems to have survived the changes under Edward VI, and to have become extinct through lack of members in the reign of Elizabeth. (fn. 5)