Notes on the hospital of St. Bartholomew, Rochester.

Date:
[1896?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notes on the hospital of St. Bartholomew, Rochester. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/24 (page 17)
    Dean Prat’s answer to Bishop’s inter¬ rogatories, p. 2 Same brief p. 20. a. d. 1724. NOTES ON HOSPITAL OF S. BARTHOLOMEW. 17 The revenues amounted in 1716 to £36 9s. lod. In 1716 a dispute arose between the Dean (Prat) and the Chap¬ ter, on the subject of the hospital. The Chapter maintained that the poor brethren ought to have the benefit of the improvements on their estates ; that the reserved rents ought to be made with greater regard to the improved value ; or if any fines were taken they ought to be applied solely for the benefit of the brethren. They also claimed a voice in the management of the estates, on the ground that they had, jointly with the Dean, defended the title, and paid the money to Lady Bingley. The Dean insisted on the constant enjoyment of his predecessors as evidence of right, there being no evidence of the Chapter having at any time interfered. The dispute was referred to the Bis!fcp of the diocese, who administered interrogatories, and Mr. Recorder Barrell was requested to report. He accordingly prepared “ A state of the case of St. Bartholomew’s Plospital, humbly offered to the consideration of the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Rochester, Sept., 1716. (This was Bishop Atterbury). Eight years afterwards further interrogatories were administered. In answer, the Dean (Clayett) stated that Dean Prat had increased the number of brethren from two to four, and had raised the yearly revenue from £13 9s. od. to ^36 9s. iod. From that time no action seems to have been taken. The prac¬ tice afterwards was perfectly uniform. The Dean alone managed leases, received renewal fines for his own use and appointed brethren without any interference on the part of the Chapter. With reference to the chapel the following passage occurs in a letter written by Dean Prat to the Bishop of Rochester: “I