Report of the Commissioners appointed in pursuance of an act of parliament made and passed in the 5th and 6th years of King William the 4th, c. 71 : instituted, "An act for appointing commissioners to continue the inquiries concerning charities in England and Wales, until the first day of March one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven." (Dated 30th June 1837.) Presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty.

  • Great Britain. Commissioners for Inquiring Concerning Charities
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Commissioners appointed in pursuance of an act of parliament made and passed in the 5th and 6th years of King William the 4th, c. 71 : instituted, "An act for appointing commissioners to continue the inquiries concerning charities in England and Wales, until the first day of March one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven." (Dated 30th June 1837.) Presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    CITY OF LONDON. JOINT REPORT OF MR. WROTTESLEY AND MR. SMITH. ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S HOSPITAL. PAGE Oriijinal Foundation and early History . 1 Indenture of 27th December 1546 ... 2 Charter of 13th January, 38 Henry VIII., 1546-7 4 Further History 7 Abstract of Act of Parliament 1782 . . 8 Gilts of real Estates, Annuities, &c. . . 11 Purchases and Sales 15 Exchanse between Christ's and St. Bartho- lomew's Hospitals 16 Pecuniary Gifts and Legacies .... 17 Present Property of the Hospital . . .17 Rentals 17 Funded Property 47 Other Sources of Income 47 Summary of Income 48 Patronage 48 Object of the Charity 48 PAGE Government; 48 General Courts 48 Committees 49 View Days 49 Officers and Internal Management: . . 49 Medical and Surgical Estabhshment . . 51 List of Officers and Servants .... 55 Admission 56 Wards 57 Treatment, Diet, and Attendance . . 58 Post Mortem Examination .... 61 Out-Patients 61 Hospital Buildings 62 Expenditure 64 Summary of Accounts 68 Medical School 70 Plan 73 The origin of this establishment is referred, by Stow and other historians, to Rahere the minstrel of king Henry L, who, having founded the priory of St. Bartholomew upon a vacant space in Smithfield granted to him by the king, annexed to it about tbe year 1122 an hospital. Here he provided for the relief of poor and sick persona, of pregnant women, and, in case of their death, of the children who should be born there, until attaining seven years of age, under the management of a master, eight brethren, and four sisters. No record of the grant of the site nor of the deed of endowment has been preserved; but a charter of King Henry L, bearing date in 11.33 is extant, by which certain privileges were granted to the church, to Raherus the prior, the canons, and the poor of the hospital. The tomb of Rahere still remains in the church of St. Bartholomew the Greater, in Smithffeld. It is relate^l that Alfune, a man distinguished, among other charitable works, for building the church of St. Giles without Cripplegate, the first Hospitaler or proctor for tending the poor, used daily to beg for their relief at the adjoining market and shambles of Smithfield. The annexation of the hospital to the priory was subsequently confirmed by a charter of King John, in the fifth year of his reign, and various grants to the hospital of property which, at this distance of time, scarcely admits of identification, (including, among other things, 37 acres of ground, situate in St. Giles's and St. Botolph without Aldgate granted in the 18th Edward TL), are recorded, together with no less than 13 different charters of liberties enumerated in an Inspeximus, bearing date in the second year of King Henry VI. In-the 11th year of the same King an arrangement between the prior and convent of St. Bartholomew and the master and brothers of the hospital was sanctioned by Parliament, by which the execution of the repairs of the aqueduct in Iseldon, called Cannonesbury, the water whereof was conveyed by pipes underground, was committed to the said master and brothers to be done at their cost; one moiety of the water to be conveyed to the hospital by pipes, and a rent of 6s. 8d. per annum to be paid to the prior and convent. It may also be noticed that, in 1423, the buildings of the hospital received a repair at the charge of the executors of the celebrated Whittington, Lord Mayor of London. The Valor Ecclesiasticus, temp. Henry VIII. (quoted in the Report of a Committee of the Common Council, appointed in 1834 in relation to the Royal Hospitals), gives the following statement of the real property of this hospital shortly previous to its dissolution. Rents and rents of assize in London and the suburbs, 292/. 4^-. 6c/. In Middlesex, 30/. 11^. In Essex, 38/. 6^. 8d. In Berks, I2d. In Northampton, 6/. 6^. 8d. In Somerset, 3/. 6^. 8c?. In St. Albans, 6s. 8d. Total, 3711. 3s. 2d., subject to payments amounting to 66/. 6s. 9d., leaving a balance of 304/. 16*. 5d. per annum. In the year 1538, i. e. between the date of the act for the suppression of the lesser monas- teries (27 Henry VIII. cap. 28) and the last act of dissolution in this reign (37 Henry VIH. cap. 4), a petition was presented to the King by the mayor, aldermen, and comriionalty of the city of London, stating that there then were near and within the said city, fhi-ee hospitals, called St. Mary's Spytell, St. Bartholomew's Spytell, and St. Thomas's Spytell; and one Abbey, called the New Abbey, at Tower Hill, founded of good devotion, ancl, endowed only for the relief, comfort, and aid of the poor and indigent, not able to help themselves, and not Rep. 32—Part VI. B London. St. Bartholomew's Hospital.]