A brief historical account of the origin, progress, and present state of St. Thomas's Hospital, Southwark / By a student of medicine [i.e. B. Golding].
- Golding, Benjamin, 1793-1863.
- Date:
- 1816
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A brief historical account of the origin, progress, and present state of St. Thomas's Hospital, Southwark / By a student of medicine [i.e. B. Golding]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![boat for conveying persons over the river Thames, pre- viousty to the erection of London bridge. It is said, that being a virgin, she accumulated money sufficient to en¬ dow this convent handsomely, and leave it in a flourish¬ ing state at her death. Some years afterwards, from a cause inexplicable at the present day, it became converted into a college of priests by a noble lady named Swithin; but this latter es¬ tablishment, we learn, proving like the former one, of but short duration, it was refounded and appropriated, in ] 106, to the use of canons regular, by Sir W. Pont de l’Arch and William Daunly, Norman knights. After continuing as a monastery upwards of a century, and retaining its original name of St. Mary Overie or Ovary’s, it was destroyed by fire, Anno 1207. The prior and assembly, in order to prevent any relaxation in their religious duties, deemed it necessary that same }rear to found a temporary hospital, where they performed their ritual ceremonies and said mass, whilst their priory was rebuilding. This was constructed in the celleries ground¬ ed against the wall of the monastery, in the year 1213, by order of Richard, prior of Bermondsey, who named it the Almonry, for converts and poor children. But at the desire of Peter de Rupibus, or de la Roch, bishop of Winchester, anno 1228, that hospital was removed to the present site of St.. Thomas’s, for the benefit of good air and water. At this remote distance of time, the for¬ mer of these considerations would appear to us to be ill- judged ; but, notwithstanding the present confined part of Southwark, in which the building stands, it was at that time, comparatively speaking, in the country : and a reference to ancient maps, proves to us that it was sur¬ rounded by high trees, and the ground for some distance around it was unoccupied. Peter de Rupibus contributed largely to its erection, and it was dedicated to St. Thomas the Martyr; i. e. Thomas a Becket, who was murdered at Canterbury in 1171, and whose tomb was to be seen in the cathedral of that city till destroyed by Cromwell the Protector. His death was considered as so flagrant an](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b3189429x_0008.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
