before 1200, Geoffrey Blundel of Cosby had become a Brother of the Hospital, and then "together with his body" gave land at Cosby "to God and St. John and the Brethren of the Hospital." This grant was confirmed by Richard Basset, whose charter is still preserved among the archives of the Borough. In the year 1219-20 "the Master of the Hospital of Leicester" was called to warrant in a case before the curia regis.
The church stood within the grounds of the Hospital, on the north side of St. John's Lane, (afterwards Causeway Lane), at the corner of the old High Street. We hear nothing of it for many years, except a few trivial incidents; as when, in 1297, the church gave sanctuary to a burglar, and when, in 1313, a man who had been hung, and then taken into the cemetery of the church for burial, came to life again. About half-a-dozen years after the first visitation of the Black Death, a wealthy burgess of the town, named Peter the Saddler, who probably came from Grendon in Northamptonshire, gave property to John of Northborough, Master of the Hospital of St. John at Leicester, and the Brethren of the Hospital, that they might maintain a chaplain from among the Brethren, to celebrate daily, especially for the souls of Peter and Alice his wife, and all their sons and daughters. Shortly afterwards, in 1361, the second visitation of the pestilence, which then swept over the Midlands, inflicted on this House a terrible disaster, for nearly all the Brethren were struck down and perished.
The Guild of St. John was founded in this church; and, early in the 15th century, Robert, son of Robert de Sutton, was Chaplain of the Guild. By his will, which was proved on February 10th, 1442, he directed that he should be buried "in St. Mary's chapel in the church of St. John the Baptist before the altar." In the year 1478,[1] when Richard Wigston was the Steward of the Guild, he agreed with Sir Robert Sileby the Master
- ↑ The date of this agreement is given in the published Records of the Borough (II. 282) as "September 20, 1464." This must be an oversight, for the deed is dated in 17 Edward IV., or 1478. Throsby and Nichols give the correct date.
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