RELIGIOUS HOUSES A counter seal of the twelfth century ^^' shows a church with central tower, a cross at each gable end, and two tall round-headed arches in the wall, standing on a ship of antique shape, with curved prow at each end, terminating in a bird's head, on the sea. In a field over the tower is the inscription : — NAvis eccl' if On the left a wavy star of six points, on the right a crescent. Legend : — sigill' : PRioRis : ecclesie : sci : bartolomei A seal of the thirteenth or fourteenth century^^ is a pointed oval, and bears a representation of St. Bartholomew standing on a lion couchant guardant. The saint holds a knife in his right hand, a book in his left. Overhead is a trefoiled canopy pinnacled and crocketed. On each side in the field there is a tree on which is slung by the strap a shield of arms — England. Legend : — S'C . . . . E . HOSPITAL . . . SANCTI : EARTH . I . LONDON A counter seal of the thirteenth century,'^' in shape a pointed oval, bears an impression of an antique oval intaglio gem representing an eagle. Legend : — SI HOSPITAL' BARTHOL 21. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. KATHARINE BY THE TOWER The hospital of St. Katharine by the Tower was founded about 1148^ by Matilda the wife of King Stephen for a master, brethren, sisters, and thirteen poor persons^ on land in the parish of St. Botolph without Aldgate, bought for that purpose from the priory of Holy Trinity, Aid- gate.' The queen gave to the hospital for its maintenance a mill near the Tower of London with the land belonging to it,^ and confirmed the grant made by William de Ypres of an annual rent of ^20 from ' Edredeshethe,' ' after- wards Queenhithe. The perpetual custody of the hospital was conferred on the priory of Holy Trinity by Queen Matilda, who, however, re- '" B.M. Seals, Ixviii, 23. '" Ibid. 46. "' Ibid. 47. ' Ducarel, in his ' Hist, of St. Kath. Hosp.' Bii/. Topog. Brit, ii, says it was founded in I 148. The charter by which Matilda made a grant to the priory of Holy Trinity in exchange for the land on which the hospital was founded must be either 1147 or 1148 in date, as it is witnessed by Hilary bishop of Chichester, 1147-74, and Robert bishop of Hereford, II 31-48. ' Ibid, ii, I, 2, 100 ; Cott. Chart, xvi, 35. ' Dugdale, Mon. Angl. vi, p. i53,App. ix.
- Ducarel, op. cit. ii, 100.
'Ibid. 100, 10! ; Cott. Chart, xvi, 35. served for herself and the queens, her successors, the choice of the master.' Nothing further is heard of the house until 1255, when Queen Eleanor of Provence dis- puted the claim of the priory to its custody.' The condition of the hospital shortly before must have been most unsatisfactory, for the canons of Holy Trinity had appointed one of their own number master in order to reform the brothers who were always drinking and quarrelling,^ and a suspicion arises that the priory may have been partly responsible for this by previously neglect- ing its duty of supervision.' Whether the queen's action was determined by her desire to secure a better working of the hospital, or by her resent- ment at the encroachment on her right of pre- sentation, it is impossible to say. The court of the Exchequer decided that the priory had established its claim to the custody, and an inquisition taken by the mayor and aldermen of London resulted in a similar verdict.^** The queen then called to her aid the bishop of London, who, in 1257, visited the hospital, removed the master appointed by the canons, and without a shadow of right ordered the prior and canons to refrain henceforth from all interference with the hospital.'^ In 1 26 1 Henry de Wengham, bishop of London, the bishops of Carlisle and Salisbury, with others of the king's council, prevailed on the prior to assent verbally to the renunciation of the convent's right, and then made a formal surrender of the hospital to the queen.'^ Eleanor waited for some years and then dis- solved the hospital, refounding it 5 July, 1273." This new foundation she endowed with land in East Smithfield, and all her lands and rents in Rainham ^^ and Hartlip, co. Kent, and in the vill of Reed, co. Herts., for the support of a master and three brothers, priests, who were to say mass daily for the soul of Henry III and the souls of past kings and queens of England,'* some sisters and twenty-four poor persons, of whom six were to be poor scholars. On the anniversary ^ Guildhall MS. l22,fol. 750-4 ; Ducarel, op. cit. 2, 102. ' Ducarel, op. cit. 3. * Ibid. 5. ' The letter of Pope Urban IV in 1264 shows that the prior and convent had had complete power there, instituting and depriving the brethren, who received from them the profession and habit, and took an oath to be subject to them in spiritual and temporal matters. Rymer, Foedera (Rec. Com.), i (i), 439. '" Ducarel, op. cit. 3, 4. " Ibid. 4, 5, 6. " Ibid. 6. " Ibid. App. v. " Hasted, Hist, of Kent, ii, 534. The manor of Queencourt, a farm called Berengrave, and a mill. " Chauncy, Hist, of Herts. 93. '^ Charter of foundation. Ducarel, op. cit. App. v. " Ducarel, op. cit. 8, gives the number of sisters as three, and that of the poor women as ten, but in the charter of foundation the number of sisters is not specified, and there appear to have been eighteen bedeswomen. 525
