Hospitals: St John, Winchelsea

54. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. JOHN, WINCHELSEA

Probably this was the oldest and most important of the three hospitals at Winchelsea, as certain rents were assigned to it from time immemorial from the issues of Great Yarmouth, John de Romeney, as attorney of the brethren and sisters of the hospital of St. John of Winchelsea, in the time of Edward I receiving 31s. 6d. from this source. (fn. 1) The survey of 1292 mentions the house of St. John in the thirty-fourth 'quarter' considerably nearer the business part of the town than were the other two hospitals. Its lands, granted to the corporation in 1586, amounted to 10 acres. (fn. 2) It was under the control of the mayor, who had to visit it once a year, and had power to remove any objectionable inmate, and, with the consent of the jurats, might admit any poor man or woman who had been 'in good love and fame all their time.' (fn. 3) The Custumal (fn. 4) drawn up in 1557 suggests that this house and that of St. Bartholomew were still in use at that date; but it seems more probable that the section concerning the two hospitals was merely transcribed from an earlier copy, and that they were already dissolved, as they certainly were before 1586. (fn. 5)