Hospitals

Hospitals.

I. 26. Letter from Henry, Lord Cheyne, (fn. 1) to the Lord Mayor, requesting that the son of a poor woman might be placed in the Hospital, where he might receive a free education.
Dated from Barnet, 21st May, 1580.

I. 27. Letter from the Lord Mayor to Henry Lord Cheyne in reply, informing him that the Governors of the Hospital could not receive the child, there being an order not to admit any but the children of Citizens.
2nd June, 1580.

I. 162. Letter from the Lord Mayor to Dr. Wilson, one of the principal Secretaries to the Queen, acknowledging the receipt of a licence signed by himself and the Lord Bishop of London, giving permission to the widow of Richard Maydwell to beg in the churches of the City, and stating that, before signing it, he had consulted with the Court of Aldermen, and found that it had not been the custom to suffer any one to beg in the churches of the City under warrant from the Lord Bishop or his predecessors. If such proceedings were suffered in churches, it would prevent the citizens from contributing to the support of the Hospitals for the poor. To assist the poor woman, the Governors of the Hospitals were willing to take one of her children, being the son of a Freeman, and educate him at the expense of the City.
12th July, 1580.

I. 584. Letter from the Court of Aldermen to the Lords of the Council, acknowledging their letter on behalf of Mr. Ferdinando Richardson and Mr. Richard Tothill, for the renewal of the estate of the said Tothill in certain tenements pertaining to the Hospital of Bridewell. They had called the Governors of the Hospital before them, and commended the same to their consideration, and had since received their reply, from which it appeared that on account of the extraordinary charges of the Charity, the Governors had already granted a reversion of Tothill's lease to the several tenants in consideration of certain charges incurred by them in repairing the tenements for the benefit of the Hospital. They regretted that for the above reasons they were unable to comply with the Council's request.
12th February, 1590.

II. 44. Letter from the Lords of the Council to the Lord Mayor, the Archbishop of Canterbury (Whitgift), and others, concerning the Commission given under the Great Seal to inquire into the manner in which the lands in that county (fn. 2) belonging to the Hospitals were employed or abused, and to see if any provision could be made for the sustentation and comfort of maimed soldiers who were not sufficiently provided for by the Statutes.
31st December, 1594.

II. 127. Letter from the Lord Mayor to Sir John Fortescue, Knight, acknowledging the receipt of his application on behalf of a poor child to be admitted into Christ's Hospital, and regretting his inability to comply with the same, the child's father not being a Freeman.
21st December, 1595.

II. 175. Letter from the Lord Mayor to Mr. Cooke, (fn. 3) AttorneyGeneral, beseeching his good offices on behalf of the City, in the settlement of the question referred to him and the Recorder, touching the lands and tenements in question, between the Hospitals of Bridwell and Bethlem and Mr. William Tothill.
(Circa 1600.)

II. 287. Petition to the King (James the First) from the Governors of the Poor of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, concerning a lease of a house in St. John Street, Clerkenwell.
(Circa 1607.)

II. 329. Letter from the Lord Mayor to the Earl of Dorset, touching a parcel of ground lying on the west part of Bridewell Hospital, belonging to the President and Governors, (fn. 4) which of late had been enclosed by his father without the consent of the Governors, and praying that the same might be restored.
23rd September, 1608.

III. 44. Letter from the Lord Mayor to Lord Wootton, (fn. 5) in reply to his application on behalf of Ann Tisdale for a lease of her dwelling in a part of Bridewell, stating that the President and Governors desired him to acquaint his Lordship that, for the better government of the said Hospital and the relief of poor fatherless children there, they had agreed that none should inhabit or hold any part of it by lease, except officers of the place and such artificers as, having fitting trades, would be bound to take poor children as apprentices; but that they had, in consideration of her father and grandfather having been dwellers there, and of their expenditure on the premises, permitted her and her husband (who was only a tailor, and not bound or able to take and bring up poor children as apprentices) to remain as tenants at will.
28th March, 1611.

V. 131. Letter from the Lord Mayor, &c., Governors of St. Thomas's Hospital, to the Bishops of Durham (Neile), (fn. 6) Winchester (Andrews), (fn. 7) and Rochester (Buckeridge), (fn. 8) reciting that some twelve years previously William Todd, Clerk, had been appointed by the Governors to officiate in the church of St. Thomas, in Southwark, during their will and pleasure, which place he filled for some years without any other admission or ceremony; about two years before he had been removed on account of sundry misdemeanours, since which their Lordships, upon His Majesty's Commission of Visitation, had considered the question of the power of the Governors to displace him. For the better information of the Governors, they had had the advice of their ordinary and other Counsel of great judgment, who were of opinion that the minister being neither parson nor vicar, but a mere stipendiary, was removable at their pleasure, and it had been at sundry times put in practice and execution. They therefore earnestly besought their Lordships, before they came to a final resolution, either by some speedy legal trial (the expense of which the Governors were willing to bear), or else by some reverend judges of the law, to ascertain whether the right was as the Governors pretended.
6th April, 1622.

V. 138. Copy of Petition of the President and Governors of Bethlem Hospital to Lord Cranfield, Lord Treasurer, reciting that, upon some information unknown to them, he had issued a Commission under the Seal of the Court of Exchequer to sundry persons, whose names are set out, to inquire of certain Acts concerning the Hospital; and that the Petitioners wished to state that the revenues of the Hospital being insufficient to meet its expenses, it had chiefly been maintained for many years by the gifts of many well affected citizens, and it was feared the questioning of the present Government would hinder the charity and devotion of others to do the same in future. They therefore desired that the Commission might be expedited with all convenient speed, and that (as had been formerly the custom) some of the Aldermen (not being Governors of the Hospital), the Recorder, and some other of the City's Counsel, with such of the Commoners as he should think meet, might be added to the Commission; that the quorum (three) might be increased, and some of the principal Commissioners appointed to form part of such quorum.
(Circa 1622.)

V. 139. Order of Lord Cranfield thereon, reciting that, having considered the Petition, he deemed it reasonable, and therefore recalled the Commission, and directed the issue of a new one to the same effect, adding nine (whose names are recited) to the former Commissioners, increasing the quorum to seven, and appointing certain of the Commissioners named to form part of such quorum.

(The paper is damaged, and some of the names are illegible.)
(Circa 1622.)

VI. 194. Letter from the Lords of the Council to the Lord Mayor and the rest, recommending James Sadler, a maimed soldier, for the next vacant place in St. Thomas's Hospital, of which they were the Governors, and which was first instituted for such pious uses.
Whitehall, 30th November, 1629.

VII. 17. Letter from Sir Robert Heath, Attorney-General, to the Lord Mayor, and Aldermen, forwarding them, out of the respect he owed to the City, a copy of a case prepared by Mr. Tipper in respect of the possessions belonging to the House of Bedlam. He did not affirm it was a true case, but Mr. Tipper was confident to make it good to be so. If they thought fit to appoint a Committee of three or four to confer with him, he would be ready to advise them for the best, so far as with the duty of his place he might. 13th March, 1629.

IX. 89. Petition of the Mayor, Commonalty, and Citizens, Governors of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, stating that for above these hundred years they had been seised and possessed of divers messuages and grounds lying behind the same, abutting southward on the garden or walks belonging to the Society of Lincoln's Inn, and complaining that it had been determined to erect a long row of cottages or small tenements on the ground, to the injury of the Hospital, and praying that the said erections might be prohibited.
(Circa 1661–2.)