Mediaeval Leicester/Chapter 6
VI.
THE TWELVE DEMOLISHED
CHURCHES AND CHAPELS.
A GREAT deal has been written about the mediaeval churches which still exist at Leicester, but not so much about those which have been destroyed. It may be worth while therefore to recall what is known of them. They include three parish churches within the town, those of (1) St. Clement, (2) St. Peter, and (3) St. Michael; (4) the church of the Grey Friars, and (5) the church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin in the Newarke; and two smaller buildings, (6) the chapel of St. John's Hospital, and (7) the chapel of Wigston's Hospital. Outside the walls of the town were (8) the church of St. Leonard, (9) the church of St. Sepulchre, or St. James, (10) the little chapel on the West Bridge, (11) St. John's chapel in Belgravegate, and (12) the church of the Abbey of St. Mary of the Meadows.
Of the ancient churches or chapels of St. Austin and St. Columban, which may have existed at Leicester before the Conquest, there is little authentic information; and practically nothing seems to be known about the church of the Austin Friars.[1]
(1) THE CHURCH OF ST. CLEMENT.
The ancient parish church of St. Clement belonged to Leicester Abbey, and stood within the walls of the town, between the North Gate and the River Soar. The parish suffered very severely from the sack of 1173, and in 1220 it was so poor that it could hardly support a chaplain. By the year 1291 it had ceased to belong to Leicester Abbey. But it had not been destroyed; and moreover the Rev. C.F.R. Palmer was in error when he wrote, in his account of "The Friars Preachers, or Black Friars of Leicester," "Nothing later" (than 1220) "is found concerning this church, which disappears entirely from view." It is true that, in a Roll of Leicester churches of the year 1344, St. Clement's is wholly omitted, but it was in use a few years before. On July 8th, 1331, a licence was granted for the alienation in mortmain by Philip Danet to the master brethren and sisters of the hospital of St. Leonard, Leicester, of 5 messuages and 712 virgates of land in Whetstone, Croft and Frisby-by-Galby to find a chaplain to celebrate divine service daily in the Church of St. Clement, Leicester, for the soul of the said Philip Danet, and for the souls of his parents brothers and sisters and of Robert Burdet and Petronilla his wife. The canons of the Abbey must have parted with the church some time between 1220 and 1291, and there can be no doubt that they gave it to the Friars Preachers, or Black Friars, who came to Leicester early in the reign of Henry III., before 1253, and settled in the grove of ash-trees near to St. Clement's church. The parish by their rules the Friars could not administer, but the church, dedicated to St. Clement, pope and martyr, became the church of their priory.
The absorption of St. Clement's church in the Black Friars is a very unusual incident. Mr. A. Hamilton Thompson, although his knowledge of mediaeval ecclesiology is remarkably wide, cannot recall a similar instance. In his opinion, which he kindly allows me to quote, Danet's proposed grant indicates that "if St. Clement's had been given over to the Black Friars, it still had parochial rights, which it would have been difficult to do away with; otherwise the grant would have been made to the Friars themselves. Possibly the nave still belonged to the parish. As regards Friars' churches, however, this arrangement was most unusual; but the Abbey, in granting the church to the friars, could only have surrendered the rectorial tithes and the chancel, and had no power to oust the parishioners from the nave without special agreement. The endowments of the church were very poor. The secular vicar appointed in 1221 had as his stipend merely the daily allowance of a canon in the Abbey, so that it can have been no great sacrifice to the Abbey to part with it. I should not be surprised if the chantry of 1331 was contemplated in order to keep up the parochial services: the normal services in parochial chapels and churches, where there was no vicarage ordained, were frequently called chantries, and were precisely on the same footing."
"It appears from some old writings," says Nichols, "that a lane from the North Gate, turning westward to the Friars adjoining, and then running southward between the said Friars and the backs of the houses opposite to All Saints' Church, is called St. Clement's Lane, and therefore it is probable that the church was situated in or near it."
The church was visited by John Leland, the antiquary, about the year 1536. He noticed a knight's tomb in the choir, and a flat alabaster stone with the name of Lady Isabel, wife to Sir John Beauchamp of Holt; and in the north aisle he saw the tomb of another knight, without scripture, and in the north cross aisle a tomb having the name of "Roger Poynter of Leicester armed," (? armiger, i.e., esquire). Shortly after his visit, the church was demolished. A century later its very memory was beginning to fade away, for, in connection with the Metropolitan Visitation which Archbishop Laud held in 1634, Sir John Lambe made the following note:— "St. Clement's, Quaere, where it stood? no such now."
(2) THE CHURCH OF ST. PETER.
This church also belonged to Leicester Abbey. The Vicar was instituted by the Bishop, his salary "ab antiquo" being five marks {£3, 6s. 8d.). The clerk was chosen by the Abbot. St. Peter's seems to have been one of the six parish churches of Leicester recorded in Domesday Book, but the earliest reference to it by name appears to occur somewhere about the year 1200, when one of the witnesses of Richard Basset's charter to St. John's Hospital was "Gervasius clericus de Sancto Petro." The name of its vicar was given in 1221 as Robert the Chaplain. The parish, which was situated between those of All Saints and St. Martin, included part of the old High Street, and the church itself stood near to that street in St. Peter's Lane. It is stated by Nichols that the old County Gaol (which stood at the corner of the old High Street and Free School Lane), had been built on the site of St. Peter's church, but he must have been mistaken. The church did not face the old High Street, but lay some way back from the main thoroughfare, and was approached by two lanes, one the present St. Peter's Lane, leading out of the old High Street, the other a cross-lane, coming from Dead lane. Fragments of the old church are thought to have been found during some excavations that were made in 1839, near the corner of St. Peter's Lane and West Bond Street; and further confirmation of this site was discovered in 1892, when some workmen exposed what seemed to be a portion of the West wall, and the lower part of the tower, to a height of 8 or 10 feet.
A tragic event, which took place on Christmas Eve in 1306, may be quoted from the Coroner's Roll of that year. "It chanced about midnight that Simon the Welshman, clerk, came to St. Peter's church of Leicester, to ring the bells for matins, as the custom is; there he met William, vicar of the said church, standing in that church, who asked him where he had been tarrying so long, and struck him with a knife which is called Misericorde on the head even to the brain, and he lived for two days." The hue and cry were raised; the townships came, that is the East, West, South and North Gates, "together with the frankpledge of that township"; (i.e., the North, in which the occurrence happened.) "They ordered the coroners and bailiffs of Leicester; whereof an Inquest was taken, who say that they suspect no one of the said death but the said William the vicar himself; who kept himself in the said church for seven weeks, and afterwards came to the peace, and was kept in prison in the custody of Hugh the Mercer" (then Bailiff of Leicester). "He had chattels: 2 pieces of tapestry for five shillings, one housing of striped cloth for five shillings in the hands of Godfrey of Louvain, William of Broughton and William Turner, frankpledges; two small sheets for 1 shilling and ten pence, 2 sheets for 2s. & 6d., in the hands of William of Ruddington; one white tunicle for three shillings in the hands of the said frankpledges; one pavilion of Persian for ten shillings, one surplice and one rochet of Aylsham for ten shillings, in the hands of Benedict, vicar of the church of St. Mary de Castro in Leicester; one laver and one basin for 5 shillings, in the hands of Henry Dowell, and two cushions for 312d.; one coffer and one table for 2S. and 6d., one chair and one couse for 412d., and one pair of cymbals for one shilling and one penny; two small seats for 3d., in the keeping of Robert the coverletmaker of Hallaton, at that time of the household of the said William the vicar. They say also on their oath that John Smith and his wife, dwelling near the North Gate, sold the chattels of the said William the vicar after the said felony was done to the value of four shillings and six pence. Total, £2 11s. 4d." Cases of violence done to clerks were very prevalent at that period, but there is no record' of the vicar's punishment.
Nichols gives a few particulars relating to this Church and its vicars, but little is recorded of it before the 16th century, when it began to fall into decay. In 1389 an anchoress named Maud or Matilda, who lived in St. Peter's churchyard, came under the notice of the ecclesiastical authorities, as an exponent of Wycliffe's teaching. She was summoned to appear before the Archbishop of Canterbury himself on a charge of heresy; but, when the poor creature came up for so formidable an examination, on November 1st, 1389, she must have recanted, for she was reconciled and absolved at St. James' Abbey, Northampton, on the following Thursday. At the visitation of the Bishop of Lincoln, held in St. Mary's church, Leicester, on September 20th, 1510, William Alcock was Vicar of St. Peter's, and presentations were then made for immorality in that parish. In 1526 John Ward was vicar, and Robert Green and John Pare were Church-wardens. It is not known in what year its religious use was discontinued, but it must have been shortly after the middle of the 16th century. In 1548 there were three churchwardens, who contributed 8s. 4d. towards a levy of horse-soldiers, raised for service in the Scotch wars. But the fabric must have been in a ruinous state, when, in 1555, the community purchased from the church-wardens some stone to be used in repairing the townhall. Two years afterwards, the Corporation negotiated for a lease of the building: "Mr. Mayor and other of the brethren went to speak for St. Peter's church." This lease was carried out in 1563, the rent being five shillings a year. Part of the old structure was repaired, and made use of as a school-house, the school-master being accommodated at the townhall. The bells were weighed, and found to contain 32 cwt. 13 lbs. of lead and brass; and, in the year after the lease was made, it was agreed at a common hall that one of them should be sold "to repair the school-house." The big bell was then sold for about £16; and, shortly afterwards, the rest were also sold to Leicester bellfounders, producing altogether more than £48. The churchyard continued to be kept in repair, and the ash-trees were lopped. In 1571 it was resolved at a common hall that the timber of the church should be taken down, and kept in safety with the lead "until further order be taken therein.;" and in the following year the Town Chamberlains were paying men "to watch the lead certain nights at St. Peter's church." It amounted to as much as four fothers and five hundred pounds, about four tons. However, steps were being taken to enable the old materials to be converted to a worthy use, and, on April 7th, 1573, a deed was executed by which the Queen assigned to the "Mayor and co-burgenses of the town of Leicester," all the lead, stone and timber belonging to the decayed church of St. Peter, for the purpose of erecting "in some convenient and meet place within the town of Leicester one substantial school-house meet and fit for children to be taught in, made with windows and doors necessary, and covered with slate." The consideration was £35, paid to the Duchy of Lancaster. The schoolhouse was built on land belonging to the town, at the corner of the old High Street and Free School Lane.
And now we come to the last scene in St. Peter's history. The church bells had been taken away, and the church had been demolished, but there was still a vicar, William Rudyard, a descendant of the Rudyards of Rudyard in the County of Stafford. His living was but a poor one. Its value was given on Wolsey's taxation of the Diocese of Lincoln in 1526 as 43s. 4d., and in 1561 it was estimated to be worth 45s. a year and the tithe 4s. 6d. Nothing could be done for him until the living of All Saints became vacant. He was then, in May, 1584, instituted vicar of that parish church in addition to St. Peter's, his appointment being made by the Archbishop of Canterbury (the see of Lincoln being at that time vacant), and confirmed by the Crown. The two parishes thus became united during the lifetime of William Rudyard. It was thought desirable that this union should be made permanent, and so a petition was addressed to the Queen, in November, 1590, by the Council of Leicester and William Rudyard, supported by the Bishop of Lincoln, praying that this might be done. For some reason or other, the proposed union of parishes became a burning question in the town, and in the following year led to a heated discussion taking place in the Council Chamber. It was agreed finally "by the greater part then assembled" that the late parish of St. Peter should be united to "the new parish church of All Saints in Leicester," and the minutes of the meeting explain graphically how this result was brought about.
"There was assembled at this meeting of both Companies fifty and five, whereof all but thirteen or fifteen gave their consents to the said union for that they were bidden by Mr. Mayor that so many as would not consent thereunto should go forth of the hall or parlour. So as thereupon there went out but fifteen or thereabouts, the said Mr. Mayor sitting in the parlour still. Then said Mr. John Stanford "it is agreed, for here remaineth still," or "here is the greater part." And thereupon the hall break up. Yet after Mr. Mayor's departure out of the parlour there was some defuzion and altercation, for that the other side or part viz. Mr. James Clarke and they of St. Martin's parish said they were the greater part. Quaere?" The various documents giving legal effect to the union of the two parishes thus initiated are given in full by Nichols.
It is a remarkable fact, that, although the Rev. William Rudyard cannot have been a young man when he was appointed to this living, he lived more than 42 years longer, ministering at his new church. When he was buried at All Saints, on the 18th June, 1626, it was noted on the register that he had been "vicar of All Saints about fifty years."In the next century the churchyard of the old church of St. Peter was being used, according to Sir John Lambe, as "a cabbage ground."
A small piece of stained glass in the window of the Mayor's Parlour at the Old Town Hall, which is marked with the letter P. is pointed out as a relic, said by tradition (but on no other authority), to have come from old St. Peter's. Part of a holy water stoup, and several small fragments of masonry, that were discovered on the church's site about 1892, are now in the possession of Mr. Henry Hartopp of Leicester. A stone wall which runs along part of the yard of Salem Chapel, in Free School Lane, may have been one of St. Peter's boundaries. What is reputed by an old tradition to be the font of St. Peter's Church, is now standing within a garden in Guthlaxton Street.
(3) THE CHURCH OF ST. MICHAEL.
The history of St. Michael's church is not unlike that of St. Peter's. It was also one of the six churches existing at Leicester when Domesday Book was compiled, and belonged to Leicester Abbey. It suffered in the sack of 1173. Some historians say that it was nearly, others that it was wholly "demolished." It is certain that, after that great catastrophe, the parish was left in a ruinous state, and long remained desolate and uninhabited. Its "streets became green lanes; and the sites of the houses, which for centuries afterwards remained unbuilt upon, were converted into orchards."Almost all the extant deeds relating to real estate in the old parish of St. Michael are concerned with "gardens," "plots of ground," and "crofts," and hardly ever refer to houses. One large area, known as "St. Michael's Croft," comprised a considerable number of gardens. The extremely rural aspect presented by this part of the town as late as 1495 may be gathered from a deed of that date, which describes a piece of land in St. Michael's parish. It was surrounded by hedges, which were said to contain 88 ashtrees and two aspens.
The church itself probably escaped any very serious damage in the great sack. At any rate, it seems to have been in use some twenty or thirty years after the siege, for two of the witnesses 
The use of the church was discontinued in the 15th century; indeed Throsby says that it was totally demolished "about 1400." In 1487 there was no vicar, and evidently there had been none for some time. The lands of the church then belonged to the Abbot of Leicester, "pendente vacatione vicariae," the Bishop of Lincoln having waived any claim. The church itself seems to have disappeared at any rate before 1500, and the parish became united first with St. Peter's, and then with All Saints'. It lay between those two parishes, the church being situated somewhere in the "Back Lanes," between the old High Street and the eastern wall of the town. It was approached by a street described in old deeds as "the common way which leads to the church of St. Michael," which ran westward out of that part of the King's highway that was called Torchmere. Some land belonging to St. Michael's church abutted on the Town Wall and ditch.
After the Leicester authorities had obtained the royal charter in 1589, they recognized the services of their Town Clerk, William Dethick, by giving him a share of the Borough land, and by a conveyance bearing date the 27th day of April, 1591, they granted to him "one parcel of ground or croft, with the appurtenances, called St. Michael's church-yard, together with one lane at the west end thereof, lying and being together in the parish of St. Peter in the town of Leicester." St. Michael's churchyard was then in the parish of St. Peter, for it was not until 1591, the year of this deed, that St. Peter's parish was united with that of All Saints.
It is stated by Nichols that part of the land comprised in "this conveyance was sold about the beginning of the 18th century" to the parishioners of All Saints, "in addition to their church-yard." The site was identified by Throsby, whose friend Mr. Cobley owned a house which had been built upon part of the old churchyard, and Cobley had among his titledeeds the conveyance to Dethick. The church is believed to have stood near the present Vauxhall Street and Causeway Lane. The position assigned to it, near the Castle, in the Plan of Leicester that is published in the first volume of the Borough Records, is manifestly erroneous.
(4) THE CHURCH OF THE GREY FRIARS.
St. Francis of Assisi died in 1226. A year or two before his death. Friars of his Order, or Friars Minor, who were called sometimes, from the colour of their garments, the Grey Friars, came into England. Their Priory at Leicester is said to have been founded by Simon de Montfort, the second of that name, who was Earl of Leicester from about 1238 to 1265. The Priory church seems to have been built about 1255, for in that year Henry III granted 18 oak-trees in the King's Hay of Alrewas to the Friars Minors of Leicester "to make stalls and wainscote their chapel."[2] They had certainly become established, and their church had been completed some time before 1292, when one of the boundaries of a messuage in St. Martin's parish was described as "the lane which leads to the church of the Friars Minors." The priory and church stood south of St. Martin's churchyard, and the large gardens and grounds belonging to the Order extended from the upper end of the Market Place nearly as far as the old High Street. One of the Gateways opened on Friar Lane, and there was another entrance from what is now called Peacock Lane. The church was destroyed soon after the dissolution of the monastery, and some of its old stones and timber were used for the repair of St. Martin's church.
Nichols has collected a few particulars of this Priory; but the most exciting event in its history happened in 1402, when two of the brethren were hanged at Leicester, for saying that Richard the Second was still alive, and the Prior himself was drawn and quartered in his religious habit at Tyburn for a similar offence.
After the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, and the death of Richard III., his body was brought to Leicester, and interred in the church of the Grey Friars. Ten years afterwards, "a fair tomb of mingled-coloured marble adorned with his statue" was erected over his remains by his successor, Henry the Seventh. Leland states that "a knight called Mutton, some time Mayor of Leicester," was buried there, but no Mayor of this name is known. The tomb which Leland noticed was in all probability that of Sir William Moton, of Peckleton, Knight, who, according to Burton, was buried at the church of the Grey Friars in Leicester in the year 1362.
(5) THE CHURCH OF THE ANNUNCIATION OF
OUR LADY OF THE NEWARKE.
The collegiate church founded by Henry, Duke of Lancaster, in honour of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, was an enlargement of his father's original foundation, which had provided a Hospital within the Newarke. In the year 1353 he obtained a bull for carrying out his design, and in the following year royal letters patent were issued, granting him license to build a monastery in honour of the Annunciation of Our Lady out of his father's hospital, and to ordain a college of dean and canons secular. The Statutes for the regulation of the new foundation were completed in 1355, and the College, richly endowed, began its existence.[3]
The new Church had not been finished when the good Duke was swept away by the second epidemic of the Black Death in 1361. In his will he enjoined his executors to complete it; and he bequeathed to it all the furniture and relics of his chapel, and ordered that his body should be buried therein "on one side of the high altar over against the place where the body of our lord and father is interred." After his death, John of Gaunt, during the latter years of his life, took a personal interest in the building; and when he died, in 1399, he bequeathed to the church his red garment of velvet embroidered with gold suns, and all the apparel connected with it, and the whole of his missals and some of the books belonging to his chapel. In the same year King Henry the Fourth executed a deed, in which, after reciting that his grandfather had begun the foundation of a collegiate church at Leicester, and that John, Duke of Lancaster, his father, had been desirous to complete the same, he granted a writ of aid for masons and material for the completion of the building. When the church was actually finished is not known. It was still incomplete when Henry the Fifth came to the throne in 1413, but was probably finished within a few years after his accession.
It was not a large building. "The College Church is not very great," wrote Leland. who saw it about 1536, "but it is exceeding fair." It lay on the south side of the quadrangle, the north side of which was occupied by the hospital. The cloisters, which stood on the south-west side of the church, were described by Leland as "large and fair"; and the houses in the compass of the area of the college for prebendaries all seemed to him "very pretty." The walls and gates of the college were stately. "The rich cardinal of Winchester," (Cardinal Beaufort), "gilded all the flowers and knots in the vault of the church." Within the church were tombs, thus described by Leland: "There lieth on the north side of the high altar Henry, Earl of Lancaster, without a crownet, and two men children under the arch next to his head. On the south side lieth Henry, the first Duke of Lancaster, and in the next arch to his head lieth a lady, by likelyhood his wife. Constance, daughter to Peter, King of Castile, and wife to John of Gaunt, lieth before the high altar in a tomb of marble, with an image of brass (like a queen), on it." (A grant of Henry IV recites that the Duchess Constance, his step-mother, his wife Mary Bohun, and his brothers lay buried in the church.) "There is a tomb of marble in the body of the choir. They told me that a Countess of Derby lay buried in it; and they make her, I wot not how, wife to John of Gaunt, or Henry IV. Indeed Henry IV, while John of Gaunt lived, was called Earl of Derby. In the chapel of St. Mary, on the south side of the choir, lie buried two of the Shirleys, knights, with their wives; and one Brokesby, an esquire. Under a pillar in a chapel of the south cross aisle lieth the lady Hungerford, and Sacheverell, her second husband. In the south side of the church lieth one of the Blunts, a knight, with his wife. And on the north side of the church lie three Wigstons, great benefactors to the College. One of them was a prebendary there, and made the free grammar school."
Six Chantries were founded in this church.
1. Simon's chantry was founded by Simon Symeon in 1381-2, "for the soul of Duke Henry, for the healthful estate of John of Gaunt, his son, Henry, earl of Derby, Simon Symeon and Elizabeth his wife, for their souls after death and the souls of the fathers and mothers of Simon and Elizabeth and all the faithful departed." On the day of Simon's obit, the office and mass of the dead were to be sung, and one of the canons was to say mass at the altar which Simon had constructed in the north part of the church, and three masses were to be said daily at the same altar.
2. There was also a chantry of one chaplain, founded in 1401 by a clerk in the household of John of Gaunt, known as "Elvet's Chantry." The priest received £5 6s. 8d., and shared a house with the chaplain of Hervey's chantry.
3. Another chantry, founded by William Bedell, had one priest, who received £4 6s. 8d. a year.
4. By his will John of Gaunt ordained a chantry of two chaplains to celebrate divine service therein for ever for him and his soul and the soul of his late well-beloved consort, dame Constance, who was buried there, and to hold an obit for the soul of his late consort on the 24th day of March yearly for ever. This chantry was licensed by letters patent of March 8th, 1402-3. The two chaplains had a joint salary of £13 6s. 8d., and a chantry house and garden in the close, valued at 10s. a year.
5. The widow of William Hervey, who had been one of the ladies of John of Gaunt's household, and who was afterwards the nurse of Henry V., in the year 1406 founded a chantry of one chaplain to be appointed by the dean, who was to say mass daily either in the church or in the "poor folks' chapel." His salary was £5 6s. 8d., and he shared a chantry house in the close, valued at 10s. a year, with the chaplain of Elvet's chantry.
6. The chantry of William of Wigston was founded in 1512 for two chantry priests, who received £14 between them, and a house in the close, valued at 10 shillings a year, which is still in existence. He built to the honour of Almighty God, our blessed Lady, St. Ursula and St. Katharine, a new chapel, "inclosed with costly works wrought and made of latten, fixed and laid between two pillars, in the body of the church of the aforesaid college, on the north side thereof."
The most valuable ecclesiastical asset of the church was given to it by the good Duke of Lancaster, who brought home from Paris, in 1351, as a present from the French King, one thorn taken from the crown of Jesus, which had been enshrined by St. Louis in the Sainte Chapelle. This inestimable relic was placed near the high altar, upon a stand of pure gold. Pilgrims from all parts of Christendom were drawn to the church, perhaps more through the attraction of this treasure than by the exquisite beauty of the Gothic architecture, or by the indulgences and relaxations from penance which were granted to all those who should visit it. But it was well worth a pilgrimage on its own account. It hath been commended "by Knights and Squires to have been the most fairest that ever was seen." "The flying traceries of its windows, the variety of its mouldings, and the general richness of its decorations made it the idol of the inhabitants, and the admiration of the faithful throughout Europe."
A curious scene took place in this church in the year 1389 when Archbishop Courtenay ordered three Lollards, who had adjured their heresies, to do penance. Their names were William Smith, Roger Dexter and Alice Dexter. They were condemned to perform their penance on three successive Sundays in the following manner. "On the first Sunday, William and Roger, in their shirts and breeches, and Alice in her shirt only, all with bare feet and heads, were to walk in the procession before high mass in the collegiate church, William carrying an image of St. Katherine, and Roger and Alice each a crucifix in their right hands, while all bore tapers of half-a-pound weight. Three times during the procession, at its beginning, middle, and end, they were to kiss the images, to the honour of the Crucified, and in memory of His passion, and in honour of St. Katherine, bending the knee devoutly. After the procession, they were to stand during the whole of the mass before the great rood, holding their images and tapers, and at the end they were to offer their tapers to the celebrant. Their penance on the following Sunday was to be done in the Market Place, and on the Sunday after in their parish church."
The college was dissolved in 1547, and the grace and beauty of this glorious church were utterly destroyed, some time before 1590.
(6) THE CHURCH OF ST. JOHN'S HOSPITAL.
The Hospital, or College, of St. John the Evangelist and St. John the Baptist was a very ancient foundation at Leicester, but little is known of its early history. There does not seem to be any authority for Throsby's statement, that its church was destroyed during the contests between Henry II and his son, although the Hospital may have suffered in the sack of 1173. It was certainly in existence in the 12th century, for, some time before 1200, Geoffrey Blundel of Cosby had become a Brother of the Hospital, and then "together with his body" gave land at Cosby "to God and St. John and the Brethren of the Hospital." This grant was confirmed by Richard Basset, whose charter is still preserved among the archives of the Borough. In the year 1219-20 "the Master of the Hospital of Leicester" was called to warrant in a case before the curia regis.
The church stood within the grounds of the Hospital, on the north side of St. John's Lane, (afterwards Causeway Lane), at the corner of the old High Street. We hear nothing of it for many years, except a few trivial incidents; as when, in 1297, the church gave sanctuary to a burglar, and when, in 1313, a man who had been hung, and then taken into the cemetery of the church for burial, came to life again. About half-a-dozen years after the first visitation of the Black Death, a wealthy burgess of the town, named Peter the Saddler, who probably came from Grendon in Northamptonshire, gave property to John of Northborough, Master of the Hospital of St. John at Leicester, and the Brethren of the Hospital, that they might maintain a chaplain from among the Brethren, to celebrate daily, especially for the souls of Peter and Alice his wife, and all their sons and daughters. Shortly afterwards, in 1361, the second visitation of the pestilence, which then swept over the Midlands, inflicted on this House a terrible disaster, for nearly all the Brethren were struck down and perished.
The Guild of St. John was founded in this church; and, early in the 15th century, Robert, son of Robert de Sutton, was Chaplain of the Guild. By his will, which was proved on February 10th, 1442, he directed that he should be buried "in St. Mary's chapel in the church of St. John the Baptist before the altar." In the year 1478,[4] when Richard Wigston was the Steward of the Guild, he agreed with Sir Robert Sileby the Master and with the Brethren of the Hospital, that he and his successors "would find evermore during the said guild a good and an able priest to say or sing mass in the guild chapel of St. John aforesaid (and two days in the week in the chapel of St. John set at the town's end of Leicester), except that the master or his successors at any time will say mass there themself, and what time they say mass there or be forth of town that then the said guild priest shall sing or say high mass at the high altar of the said St. John, helping the said master and his successors to sing and read in the choir there every holy day in the year divine service, praying especially for the souls of Peter Saddler and his wife." The priest was to have board at the Hospital, or 40 shillings a year in lieu of board, and such salary as the Stewards agreed, and a chamber found him "within the said St. John." In the Subsidy list of the Diocese of Lincoln for 1526, "Dom: Willelmus Walton Curatus Leicester Johannis," was assessed on an income of £4.
The Hospital with its church and all its lands passed by Queen Elizabeth's charter of 1589 to the Mayor and Burgesses of Leicester. Part of the site was used for the purpose of a Wool Hall, being leased for life in 1592 to the philanthropic Thomas Clarke with that object; but afterwards the building reverted to charitable uses. On an adjoining portion of the land the Town Gaol was constructed, which was pulled down in 1792. The ruins of the old church then came to light again, and were sketched by Throsby, who gave a full description of them. They comprised an arch, which he calls "Saxon," and several pillars and parts of walls.[5] The nave was 17 feet 4 inches broad, and 41 feet long. Four large oak beams had been laid on the capitals of the pillars, to support the floor when it was converted into a prison, and Throsby conjectured that they had been used originally to uphold the roof of the church.
(7) THE CHAPEL OF WIGSTON'S HOSPITAL.
The Hospital of St. Ursula, founded by William Wigston, was built at the west end of St. Martin's churchyard, and, on the south side of the building, next to Peacock Lane, stood the chapel, which was put up about 1515, and "restored" in 1730. Nichols has the following description of it. "The chapel of this hospital was originally a beautiful little Gothic building; the stalls, screen, and loft of oak, neatly finished. On the outside, the great south window, very noble, is between two rich canopies. … The South window originally contained much fine painted glass; which in 1760 was greatly defaced; but so lately as 1790 several fragments remained." Nichols describes the windows, and gives the monumental inscriptions. "Such was the state of the chapel in 1790. On a review in 1807, I find that the whole has been repaired. The East and West windows, I am sorry to say, have been blocked up; and the fine old South window replaced by a modern one, in which only five small pieces of the painted glass are retained. The small gallery has also been plastered over, and whitewashed. The whole, however, still looks very neat."
Nichols gives two illustrations of the chapel, as it was in his time. There is a good representation of it, as it appeared in 1875, just before its destruction, in "Glimpses of Ancient Leicester."
In an agreement made by deed, soon after its foundation, between the Abbot of Leicester, the Vicar of St. Martin's, and the Master and Confrater of the Hospital, it was agreed that the Vicar should administer the Sacraments to the poor people and visit them "as they do their other parishioners when there is need," and should bury their bodies in the churchyard when dead; and that the Abbot and Vicar should permit the Master and Confrater to celebrate divine service in the chapel, and not compel them to be present at divine service in St. Martin's church or churchyard, or to administer the sacraments to the parishioners or to swear obedience to them.
When Queen Elizabeth, at the request of the Earl of Huntingdon, made new Statutes for the government of the house, after 
The monuments were removed to the chapel of the new hospital. One of the "rich canopies" mentioned by Nichols was placed on a wall in the north aisle of St. Nicholas' church, and most of the old woodwork was transferred to the chapel of Trinity Hospital. The fine screen of dark oak had been taken away during the early nineteenth century "restorations," and was put up in the year 1810 at Ockbrook Church, near Derby. The site of the original chapel of Wigston's Hospital has been railed off, at the corner of the playground of Wigston's School, and a stone slab in the centre serves to remind the passer-by of its former significance.
(8) THE CHURCH OF ST. LEONARD.
The foundation of the Hospital of St. Leonard at Leicester is assigned by Henry of Knighton to William, the youngest son of Robert Blanchmains, Earl of Leicester, who was a Leper. Nichols felt some doubt about this, thinking that perhaps William the Leper founded only the Spital in the East Suburb, near St. John's chapel, and not the larger hospital beyond the North Bridge. But Henry of Knighton would be sure to know who was the traditional founder of the hospital which lay next door to his own Abbey. The church was, no doubt, built at the same time, for the chapel of St. Andrew, which was in St. Leonard's church, "in ecclesia Hospitalis," was also ascribed to William Leprosus. The Church is first heard of in 1220, and belonged to the Abbey, which received about £6 10s. 0d. from the revenues of the rectory. The vicarage, however, was so small that it would not adequately sustain a vicar, and the Abbot therefore arranged, in 1437, with the consent of the Bishop of Lincoln, that any chaplain appointed by the Abbot should serve the cure, instead of a resident vicar, receiving 53 shillings and 4 pence a year out of the revenues of the rectory.
Almost the only incident connected with this church which is recorded in the annals of the borough is a charge of burglary, reported in the Coroner's roll for 1297-8. Geoffrey the Mason, in conjunction with some other persons, who escaped, stole from St. Leonard's church the vestments, surplices, books, and other church ornaments, all of which were found in Geoffrey's possession. The small value then placed upon the church's goods (three shillings), quite bears out the tradition which affirmed that it was a church of little size or importance. Two centuries later, it seems to have been in a poor way. At the Episcopal Visitation of 1509, a presentment was made that John Birmingham, the vicar of St. Leonard's, had allowed a parishioner to die unconfessed, and without the eucharist, and that he did not read the generates sententiae,(a commination service,) nor expound the articles of the Christian faith. The vicar stated that he did not possess a copy of the genarales sententiae. At the Visitation of 1526, when John Baston was vicar, the church was poorly furnished and badly served. It then possessed only two altar-cloths for the High Altar, and no linen covering at all for Our Lady's Altar. It had no manuale, (containing the services of extreme unction, baptism, etc.,) no canopy for the pyx, no vessel for frankincense, and no lucerna. Divine service was not well attended, and was frequently interrupted by disorderly and irreverent persons. The vicar himself, it would seem, sadly neglected his duties, and the parishioners said that he ought to be suspended. An attempt had then lately been made to raise some money for the church by means of a Robin Hood's Play and through that popular performance forty shillings had been collected. But the man who received this sum — one John Laverock — refused to account for it, and it may never have reached the church. In the Subsidy List of 1526 "Dom : Rogerus Slatter" appears as "Curatus" of St. Leonard's, so John Baston had probably been suspended. Slatter was assessed on an income of £5 6s. 8d. In a list of Leicester vicars made out probably a few years later, the name of the vicar of St. Leonard's is left blank.
The parish of St. Leonard was outside the Borough Walls, beyond the North Gate, the little old church standing at the junction of Woodgate and Abbeygate, opposite St. Sunday Bridge. By her second charter of 1599, Queen Elizabeth placed the parish under the jurisdiction of the Town. The church had then fallen into a rather ruinous condition. Some thirty years afterwards an attempt was made to collect money for repairing it. The Brief issued for that purpose stated that "the steeple hath been theretofore a fair square steeple, but the foundation not being very good, for that it was made of soft mouldering stone, it so happened that the said steeple was, by a most violent tempest of wind, blown down; so that with the fall the middle aisle and north side of the church were so shaken and decayed in the main timber that it cannot be long upheld. Charge £510." Throsby, followed by Nichols, said that the church was then rebuilt, but this is doubtful. It was still standing in the year 1634. Sir John Lambe then noted that the steeple was "all down," and that there was at that time "no curate certain, but it is served sometimes by Mr, Ward, the vicar of All Saints, and sometimes by Mr. Richardson the Preacher, who is also curate of Belgrave." The church was, however, in regular use apparently up to 1640 or later. The lists of baptisms, marriages and burials, which took place there between 1632 and 1639 inclusive, and in some earlier years, are still extant, signed by Nicholas Parker, curate, and the two churchwardens. It seems to have had no vicar at that time, and shortly afterwards, during the tempest of civil war, the building was entirely demolished. In the early part of the eighteenth century, the Hospital, "pro sex viduis," was in existence, but there was no incumbent, "ecclesia caret," and the parish was united with that of All Saints. All that remained at the end of the eighteenth century was the little churchyard with some few grave stones. "At the foot of the North Bridge, in an area enclosed by a low wall, and distinguished by a few scattered gravestones, the churchyard of St. Leonard's meets the eye."
A new church of the same name was built in the 19th century on part of the old site. In the Old Town Hall Library of Leicester, there is a copy of Cranmer's Bible, printed in 1553, which contains the following M.S. note. "Mr. Rudiarde is witness that this Byble apertaineth to the Parishe of St. Leanordes anno Domini 1581, E.C."
(9) THE CHURCH OF ST. SEPULCHRE,
OR ST. JAMES'S CHAPEL.
The church of the Holy Sepulchre was situated beyond the south wall of the town, on a site now occupied by the Royal Leicester Infirmary. It belonged to the church of St. Mary of the Castle, and was served probably by one of the chaplains who assisted the Vicar of St. Mary's. The church was in existence before the end of the 12th century. It faced the public gallows, and the bodies of those who were hung were generally buried within its cemetery. In two cases the corpses revived. In the year 1363, according to Henry of Knighton, Walter Wynkbourn was hanged at Leicester, at the instance of the preceptor of Dalby, and when he was taken down from the gallows, and was being carried for dead to the cemetery of St. Sepulchre at Leicester to be buried, he began to come to life again, and was carried into the chapel, and there guarded by a Leicester priest. It happened that the King, Edward the Third, was then staying at Leicester Abbey; and, when he heard of this strange occurrence, he sent Wynkbourn a free pardon, saying, in Henry's presence, "God has given thee life, and I will give thee a charter of mercy." Ten years later, another man, named Peter King, was not so fortunate. He revived, as he lay before the high altar of the church; but, on this occasion, the convict was promptly dragged out of the church again, and incontinently rehanged.
The church was used once as a sanctuary by some thieves who had been robbing the Abbot of Leicester. In front of the building stood an image, at which it was customary for wayfarers to make a small offering. A "parochia Sancti Sepulchri" is mentioned in a rental of Lord de Grey, which is undated, but probably of the 14th century. It was at St. Sepulchre's that the view of frankpledge for the South Gate, or South Quarter, of the town was held every year on the 31st of December.
The change of name took place at the beginining of the 16th century. "Sepulchre's church" occurs in a list of 1492, but from the Visitation of the Bishop of Lincoln in 1510, it appears that the name had by that time been altered, and moreover that the building was then in bad repair. Kelly conjectured that the chapel of St. James formed part of St. Sepulchre's church, but in the report of the Bishop's Visitation it is distinctly described as "capella S. Jacobi dudiim vocat' ecclesia S. Sepulchri." A Hermitage stood on the opposite side of the road, adjoining a spring of water, which long retained the name of "Chapel-well." The old name of the church lingered side by side with the new, for in the rent roll of the Corpus Christi Guild for 1519, it is described by both. There is a rent from "a close beside St. James' church," and a chief rent from "a croft beside Sepulchre church." In 1484 "St. Sepulchre's church" had formed the boundary of one of the town wards, but in 1557 the name given to the limit of this ward was " St. James' chapel." The little church was existing in 1572, but it was then probably no more than a ruin. Nichols said that some of its walls were standing within the memory of persons living in the time of the Rev. Samuel Carte, who died April, 1740, aged 86. In the 17th century Sir John Lambe noted that St. Sepulchre's was a chapel to St. Mary's, but added "quaere, how now?"
(10) ST. JOHN'S CHAPEL AT THE TOWN'S END.
There was a chapel in Belgravegate in connection with the old Leper Hospital there, which is said to have been founded, as well as St. Leonard's Hospital, by William the Leper, Robert Blanchmain's youngest son. This leperhouse was called "The House of St. Edmund the Confessor and Archbishop." Archbishop Edmund died in 1240, and was not canonized until 1247; and therefore this hospital was not founded probably till after that year, though it seems rather doubtful whether William the Leper, whose father died in 1190, would still be living at that time. The hospital was in existence certainly before 1250, for it was recorded in the Register of Croxton Abbey, that before that date "Galfridus abbas et conventus de Croxton" gave certain lands "Deo et beatae Mariae et domui S͡ci. Edmundi Confessoris et archiepiscopi in Leycestria et pauperibus fratribus ibidem manentibus." Geoffrey was Abbot of Croxton from 1242 to 1250.
Dedications to St. Edmund the Archbishop are very uncommon. St. Edmund's at Salisbury, and the chapel of St. Edmund at Gateshead are almost the only others in England known to Mr. A. Hamilton Thompson, but he thinks it probable that Sedgefield, in the county of Durham, was dedicated to him, as the annual feast was on the day of his translation. In this last case, where the church existed long before the archbishop, the dedication must have been changed, and it is of course possible, though improbable, that this may have been the case at Leicester. The Hospital chapel was generally known as the chapel of St. John the Baptist, and belonged to the Hospital of that name within the town.
In the arrangement made in 1464 between the Steward of the Guild of St. John and St. John's Hospital, it was agreed that the priest provided by that Guild should say or sing mass two days a week "in the chapel of St. John set at the townsend of Leicester." The little building was visited by John Leland about 1536. It stood, he said, by "the Bishop's water," for so the small stream was named which flowed into the Soar across Belgravegate under Our Lady's Bridge. "At this chapel," he added, "lyith Mr. Boucher."
Towards the close of the 14th century, William de Swinderby, the well-known Lollard, became Chaplain of St. John's Hospital at Leicester, and he and his companions, William Smith and Richard Waytestathe, made use of the little chapel at the town's end for the purpose of inculcating their own advanced views. They turned the old chapel into a school where Lollard doctrines were taught. "Thus," says the orthodox Henry of Knighton, "the chapel that had once been dedicated to God was now made a receptacle and home for blasphemous heretics and enemies of the church of Christ."
The charter granted by Queen Elizabeth in 1589 comprised a conveyance to the Mayor and Burgesses of Leicester of "St. John's chapel at the end of Belgravegate with the chapel yard."
(11) THE CHAPEL ON THE WEST BRIDGE.
No mention is made of this little chapel in John Brid's account for the building of the West Bridge in 1325, nor does it occur in a list of Leicester churches and chapels compiled in 1344. But in the Mayor's account for 1365-6 there is an entry which refers to the roofing of "the chamber on the bridge." It was tiled with slates brought from the old Guild hall in Blue Boar Lane, which was then being rebuilt. It would seem therefore that the chapel was built between 1344 and 1365, during the revival of religious activity caused by the Black Death.
The chapel of Our Lady of the Bridge, or St. Mary de Brigge, was constructed over the eastern arch of the bridge. It belonged to the College of St. Mary of the Castle. William Lord Hastings, who was beheaded in 1483, by his will dated the 27th June, 1481, made bequest "that my executors do make and edify the chapel on the Bridge at Leicester, and for the making thereof one hundred pounds. Also that they find a priest in the same chapel by the space of seven years after my decease to say daily mass in the same chapel and other prayers as shall be ordained by my executors."
In the year 1523 the parish priest of Muston, having been found guilty of immorality, was sentenced by the Ecclesiastical Court, according to the report of the case, besides doing penance in the Cathedral church of Lincoln, to visit the chapel of the Blessed Mary on the South Bridge of the town of Leicester, and there repeat 150 Ave Marias on his bended knees, and to pay certain oblations. "Visitabit … capellam b͡tæ Mariæ super pontem australem villæ Leicestr et ib͡m dicet psalterium b͡tæ Mariæ genibus suis flexis …" The question therefore arises whether there were two chapels of Our Lady on two Leicester bridges, known as the West and South, as some have concluded, or whether, in spite of this report, there was only the one chapel on the West Bridge, which is there called the South in error, or as an alternative name to distinguish it from its only important rival, the North Bridge of the town.
In the absence of further references to a South Bridge and chapel, it would appear more likely that the penance had to be performed on the West Bridge. Lord Hastings would not have spoken so simply of "the chapel on the Bridge at Leicester," had there been two bridge chapels in his time. Moreover in the year 1492-3 the Dean of St. Mary's Close was described as holding some ground "beside Our Lady of the Bridge." This refers, as Kelly pointed out in a written note on the record, to the chapel on the West Bridge, and the land could hardly have been so designated if there had been two chapels of Our Lady on two different bridges.
Some complaint seems to have been made in 1526 with regard to the conduct of the bridge priest at that time, but the passage in the Visitation referring to this matter is so corrupt as to be almost unintelligible.
On the outer wall of the chapel was an image of the Virgin Mary, and it was customary for the pious, when passing over the bridge, to make a small offering.
After ceasing to be used as a chapel, the little chamber over the West Bridge was turned into a small dwelling. By an Indenture bearing date the 20th day of September, 1598, the Mayor and Burgesses of Leicester conveyed to Robert Herrick of Mountsorrel, Glover, subject to a reserved rent, "one house some time called a chapel house situate and being on the south part or side of the West Bridge, on the West side or part thereof, and was late parcel of the possessions of the late College of the Blessed Virgin Mary near the Castle of Leicester." Nichols gives the following description of it, "On the southwestern side of the West Bridge is a dwelling house resting on its edge, the water passing under it through the arch nearest the town, and the brick part continuing above the water on stonework, once a chapel with a bell on the southwest near the top, the frame of which still remains, though the window, through which it might play, is stopped up. Here two mendicant friars asked alms for the benefit of the neighbouring Priory." The Chapel was at the town end of the bridge, and not on its West side, as stated in Herrick's conveyance.
The old bridge with its quondam chapel was taken down in the year 1841.
(12) THE CHURCH OF THE ABBEY OF ST. MARY
OF THE MEADOWS.
Little more than half-a-mile beyond the north walls of Leicester lay the Abbey of St. Mary of the Meadows, the church belonging to which, a massive edifice of the 12th century, stood on the north-western side of the monastic buildings. The cloisters were south of the church, and on the east of the cloisters stood the Chapterhouse. The Abbey church, according to the report of an eyewitness, was 140 feet in length and 30 feet wide, with a large cross aisle in the centre 100 feet long and 30 feet wide, and nearly as high as Westminster Abbey. It had a high square tower standing at the west end. The great western door, with a large window above it, opened on to Abbey Gate. The church and other buildings were all of stone, and roofed with lead.
The building of the church, commenced by the founder, Robert le Bossu, Earl of Leicester, was not completed in his lifetime, but was continued by his daughter-in-law, Petronilla, a daughter of Hugh de Grantmesnil, and wife of the next Earl, Robert Blanchmains. She is said to have built the nave at her own expense, and also to have given a rope, made of her own hair, by which a lamp was suspended from the roof of the choir. The solemn dedication of the church did not take place until the year 1279.
Although the Abbey was so magnificent and famous, "probably the wealthiest Augustinian house in England, with the exception of Cirencester Abbey," little has been recorded of its church. Leland hardly mentions it. He states merely that a tomb, "ex marmore calchedonico," lay on the wall south of the high altar, and questions whether it was that of the founder, or of the countess Petronilla. But as the founder was buried, according to the testimony of one of the canons, on the right, or north side of the choir, the tomb which Leland saw cannot have, been his; and Petronilla was buried in the middle of the choir.
The church was very richly endowed with chantries and chapels and altars.
In 1323 John de Tours founded a chantry there, which he endowed with a considerable amount of land; and in 1352 Simon de Islip, Archbishop of Canterbury, handsomely endowed another. In all there are said to have been four chantries. The principal chapel, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, was enriched by pictures and fittings presented by William Geryn, a 14th century canon. Here Bishop Penny may have been buried; and here, "in the middle of the chapel," lay the great Cardinal Wolsey.
On the south side of the church was the chapel of St. Augustine, and the altar of St. John the Baptist. Others recorded in Charyte's Rental are those dedicated to the Holy Trinity, St. Gabriel, St. Stephen, St. Michael, St. Leonard, St. Andrew, St. Katherine and St. Anne.
The ceiling of the choir, and that of the body of the church, were designed and painted about the year 1340, through the munificence of William Geryn.
At the Visitation of Bishop Alnwick, which took place in 1441, a sermon "of a very pretty fashion," was preached in the chapterhouse. The record of this Visitation may be read in Mr. A Hamilton Thompson's, "Visitations of Religious Houses in the Diocese of Lincoln," (II. 206-217). The Abbot was accused of witchcraft.
A few years after the tragic end of Cardinal Wolsey the Abbey was dissolved, and the church stripped of all its beauty. The peal of bells was then valued at £88, and the lead at £1,000. This is so enormous a sum, that the printer of Thompson's History of Leicester seems to have substituted the word "land" for "lead," and he has thereby misled some later writers.
The church ornaments were sold with the "household stuff." Mr. Francis Cave, the Commissioner, reported to Lord Cromwell, in 1539, that the church was then undefaced, "and in the church," he said, "be many things to be made sale of, for the which it may please your lordship to let me know your pleasure, as well for the further sale to be made, as for the defacing of the church and other superfluous buildings which be about the monastery."
This letter was soon followed by the complete destruction of the Abbey church; that is to say, it was bereft of everything saleable, and abandoned to decay.
- ↑ Throsby said that he had discovered the traces of this church, the direction of which was "from East to West, agreeably with the custom of church-building." According to his measurements, it was in length about 150 feet, and in width 90. It stood near the centre of what Leland calls the "ile between the arms of the Soar."
- ↑ Alrewas is in Staffordshire, and there is still an "Alrewas Hay Farm" near to it. After a great quantity of timber had been blown down by the violent gale which swept over England in 1222, King Henry III. addressed letters of instruction to the officials of the Royal Forests. His Staffordshire forests were then described as "Kenifer," (Kinver), "Canoe," (Cannock Chase), "Alrewas and Hopwas." See J.C. Cox, "The Royal Forests of England," (London, 1905,) p. 6.
- ↑ The Statutes may be read in full in Mr. A. Hamilton Thompson's comprehensive "History of the Hospital and the New College of the Annunciation of our Lady of the Newarke at Leicester," published in the Papers of the Associated Architectural Societies, 1913-1916.
- ↑ The date of this agreement is given in the published Records of the Borough (II. 282) as "September 20, 1464." This must be an oversight, for the deed is dated in 17 Edward IV., or 1478. Throsby and Nichols give the correct date.
- ↑ This arch was placed by Throsby in his garden. In my copy of Throsby's History of Leicester an old note has been written, stating that the arch was afterwards "in Mr. Berridge's garden."