A HISTORY OF LONDON They were to be governed by a prior, who was elected by them with the assent of the dean and chapter of St. Paul's, and presented by the latter to the bishop for his confirmation. To the dean and chapter belonged the custody of the priory during a vacancy.' The house received support from several other London citizens: in 1336 William de Gayton left a tenement in the parish of St. Botolph without Aldersgate ^^ to provide a chantry ; Robert Elsing, the son of the founder, endowed a chantry of three priests with ^12 a year ; ^' in 1377, by the will of Henry Frowyk, sen., a chantry was established and endowed with rents from tenements in the parishes of St. Lawrence Jewry, St. Martin Ludgate, and in the Old Change;'- and John Northampton,iMn 1397, left lands in the Ropery in the parish of All- hallows the Great to provide for the mainten- ance of a chantry priest. It is evident that the state of the priory in 143 1 must have been considered satisfactory by William Grey, bishop of London, for when he dissolved the college of secular priests at Thele (co. Herts., now Stanstead St. Margaret's) he transferred its possessions to Elsingspital,'* chareed with the maintenance of two regular canons at Thele and three at the priory in London to celebrate for the souls of the founders. The priory was in this way enriched by mes- suages, land, and (^xi rent in Bowers GifFord, Chelmsford, Writtle, and Broomfield, co. Essex ; land, rights of pasturage, and looi. rent in Thele (now Stanstead St. Margaret's), Stanstead Abbots, Amwell, Broxbourne, and Hoddesdon, CO. Herts.; and the advowsons of the churches of Thele and Aldenham, co. Herts., which were appropriated to the college.'* If the bishop by this measure had aimed not only at reforming the college of Thele but also at affording material aid to the finances of the hospital, the result was disappointing. In 1438 the house was indebted to the extent of £^2"] ijs. J-^d.,^^ and ten years later it still owed over j^200.^^ The cause of these diffi- culties can only be guessed at, but it may have been the building '^ or enlarging of the church, which must have been of considerable size, as after the Dissolution, when the principal aisle had been pulled down, the remaining part sufficed for a parish church. An inventory in 1448^ ' See also Elsing's will in Sharpe, Ca/. of Wills, i, 562. '" Ibid, i, 419. " Stow, op. cit. iii, 73. " Sharpe, Cal. of Wills, i, 201. " Ibid, ii, 334. John Northampton had been mayor. Stow, op. cit. iii, 73. " Lend. Epis. Reg. Gilbert, fol. 192. " Ibid. " Cott. Chart, xlii, 10. " Ibid. " At Elsing's death the church seems to have been little more than begun, see Cal. of Wills, , 562. " Stow, op. cit. iii, 73. ™ Cott. Chart, xiii, 10. of the contents of the buttery, kitchen, great and little chambers, library,^' treasury,^^ and church does not give an impression of poverty. The church -^ possessed one or two important relics,-^ and seems to have been well provided with furniture and ornaments, and especially with vestments, of which it possessed six com- plete sets, white and red cloth of gold, green velvet, and fustian, besides innumerable copes and other vestments of all colours and materials, including one of blue velvet powdered with stars and crowns, the gift of John Hisbery. It seemed impossible for the priory to free itself from debt : in 145411 owed;^iio 7;. f)d.^^ and although most of this was paid off by Prior William Sayer, it was involved in 1461 to the extent of ^78 1 8 j., partly owing to faulty administration, which had allowed two canons to incur liabilities for which the house was ulti- mately responsible.^' By this date two more chantries had been established in the church : that of William Stokes, endowed with the reversion of tene- ments in the parishes of St. Michael Bassishaw, St. Sepulchre, and St. Botolph without Bishops- gate ; ^* and that of William Flete, with an income of ;^30 a year.^' The gross income of the house in 1461 amounted to ^^198 i6j. 4^. From this deductions had to be made for pay- ments of quit-rents, ^^30 bs. "id. ; for repairs and vacancies of tenements, ;^48 ; payments out of the William Flete Chantry, £ 13J. d. ; anniversaries, £^1 ; and payments to the poor in the hospital, ;^22 1 35. d. ; a total of j^ii5 13/. i^d. The house appears in the end to have overcome its difficulties, for there is no hint of anything of this kind later. The royal supremacy was subscribed to 22 June, 1534, by the prior, Roger Poten, and ten canons ; '" it may therefore be presumed that the priory had numbered at least as many in the middle of the fifteenth century. The house was dissolved under the Act of March, 1536, as " There were about sixty books in the library.
- ' Among other articles in the treasury there were
a horn with sllver-gilt lid, three silver basins, a silver spice-plate, a silver salt-cellar with cover, a powder- box of silver, &c. " Besides the high altar there were the altars of St. Mary, St. John the Baptist, St. Nicholas and Holy Cross. See also Arch, xliii, 244. " Milk of the Blessed Virgin, a portion of the true Cross, and the head of one of the 11,000 virgins. " There were five silver and silver-gilt chalices, a censer, and two pairs of bottles {phirJcie) of silver, three silver pyxes, and censers and candelabra, S;c. of brass. "^ Cott. Chart, xi, 68. '" Ibid. ^ Sharpe, Cal of Wills, &c. ii, 530. " Pat, 33 Hen. VI, pt. 2, m. 4, quoted in Tanner, Notit. Man. '" Dt-/>. Keeper's Rep. vii, App. ii, 292. 536
