CHAPTER V

ELSYNG SPITAL

This House, the memory of which had almost disappeared, was again restored to Mediæval London by the publication of Dr. Sharpe’s _Calendar of Wills_. And since the original terms of a Religious Foundation, and the subsequent growth of a Religious House by bequest and gift, are not often accessible, I extract from the work (1) the précis of the original will of William de Elsing, mercer, by which this House was created; and (2) a list, with dates, of the various gifts which from time to time were made to the House. Here, then, is the will, dated 1348, in which he confirms his Foundation of 1329.

Elsingg (William de) Mercer.—To Robert his son a tenement with shops and garden in the parish of S. Botolph without Aldrichesgate, and divers rents in the parish of S. Laurence in the Jewry. All his tenements and rents in the parishes of S. Alphege and S. Mary de Aldermanburi, together with the appropriation of the said church of S. Mary in which tenements he had already commenced to build an almshouse of stone and a church, he devises for the maintenance of a hospital for the poor, blind, and indigent of both sexes, under the direction of a prior and convent; and he wills that no one else soever, ecclesiastic or secular, except the said prior and convent and the testator’s executors after named, shall intermeddle in the said house or hospital. And whereas the wants of the poor are too many for his means to completely satisfy, he leaves to the said prior, &c., tenements, shops, rents, &c., in the parishes of S. Laurence in the Jewry, All Hallows de Honylane, S. Martin Pomer in Ismongerelane, S. Mildred in the Poultry, S. Giles without Crepelgate, and All Hallows de Graschirche: also in Conynghoplane in the said parish of S. Mildred and in Cordwanerstrete in the parish of S. Mary le Bow, and in the parish of S. Benedict atte Wodewharf and elsewhere, so that the said prior and convent for the time being maintain chantries for the souls of Robert le Fruyter, Ralph de Holbech and Sir Geoffrey de Holbech, William de Carleton, Bartholomew de Castello, William de Gayton, and others. Notification of the king’s licence in mortmain for the above devises having been obtained; and also of the assent of Sir Ralph (de Stratford) Bishop of London, the Dean and Chapter of S. Paul’s and other parties interested, to the canons of the said Hospital being placed under the rule and order of S. Augustine, with the habit of canons regular of the same order, and to their number being five at the least. The Dean and Chapter of S. Paul’s appointed patrons of the said hospital and to act as wardens during a vacancy. His executors to be guardians of the said Hospital and of all the above tenements and rents until a prior and canons shall have been duly elected and constituted. Dated in the hospital aforesaid Monday next before the Feast of Annunciation of V. Mary (25th March) A.D. 1348.

The Hospital had been already commenced, as the Will states, on the site of a decayed nunnery in Gayspur Lane, London Wall, for the maintenance of blind men.

The House thus founded began to attract bequests. Robert de Elsing, son of the founder, endowed chantries for the souls of his father and others. I find thirty-two bequests in the _Calendar of Wills_ down to the year 1530, and of course these were not all.

In the year 1430 a considerable accession to the property of the Hospital occurred through the then Bishop of London transferring the estates of a decayed House, that of Thele, Hertford, to Elsyng Spital on condition of founding two canons on Thele and three on Elsyng to pray for the souls of certain benefactors of Thele.

On the surrender of Elsyng House its annual income was returned at £193: 15: 5.

The Priory was granted to Sir John Williams, afterwards Lord Williams of Thane, and Keeper of the King’s jewels. He converted the whole into a dwelling-house for himself; the chapel yard he made a garden; the cloisters a gallery, and bedesmen’s rooms into stables. The house was burned down in 1541.

Meantime, the chapel of the Priory had been converted into the Parish Church of St. Alphege. The old church stood on the opposite side of the road, under the wall, like the churches of St. Augustine and All Hallows; its churchyard, on the east of the Chapel, still remains, opposite the entrance of the modern church. The parishioners paid the King £100 for their new church.