Gloucester
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Charities for the Poor Almshouses and Almshouse Charities
Three ancient hospitals, St. Bartholomew, St. Margaret,
and St Mary Magdalen, 63 whose medieval history is given in another
volume, 64 had all passed into the control of the corporation by the
end of the 16th century, and were placed under a system of joint
administration in 1636. A fourth hospital, St. Kyneburgh, founded in the 1560's
also passed to the corporation.
In 1636 statutes for the government of the three
ancient hospitals were promulgated by the
common council. 65 A board of governors comprising, a president, a treasurer,
two surveyors, two almoners, and two scrutineers, was to be elected annually and
was to hold monthly meetings at St. Bartholomew, the chief hospital; the board
was to include the mayor, two aldermen, and other corporation members. Salaried
officers - a minister, physician, surgeon, rent gatherer, and `overseer of the
manners of the poor' - were to be appointed and given residence at St.
Bartholomew, while separate ministers and readers were to be appointed for the
two smaller hospitals and paid at the same rate as the almspeople there. The
three hospitals were to maintain a total of 77 almspeople aged at least 52
years, precedence being given to burgesses and their wives. Detailed regulations
covering behaviour and religious observance were to be enforced. 66
By the early 18th century a single reader
was usually appointed for all three hospitals 67 and the office of minister was
by then usually held by the incumbent of St. Nicholas's church. 68 In 1779 an
attempt to tighten up the administration was made by the common council, which
ordered the statutes to be printed and the rules of behaviour to be posted up in
the almspeople's rooms. 69 New statutes, differing little from those of 1636,
were enacted by the council in 1830. 70 The hospitals continued to be financed
for the most part by their medieval endowments, which were administered and
leased under the same policy as the corporation property. Occasionally, however,
the revenues were found insufficient: in 1641 because of debts it was decided
that each new board of governors should collectively supply each year a loan of
£40 to supplement the hospitals' finances, 71 and in 1719, when large sums had
been borrowed at interest, the corporation decided to apply some of its own
income to the hospitals. 72
In 1836, under the provisions of the Municipal
Corporations Act, the three ancient hospitals and St. Kyneburgh were placed
under the management of the Gloucester municipal charity trustees. 73 In 1861
St. Margaret and St. Mary Magdalen were amalgamated as the United Hospitals and
the following year moved to a new building at the St. Margaret's site on London
Road. The Gothic-style brick building, designed by Fulljames and Waller,
comprised two quadrangles, one occupied by the United Hospitals, and the other
by St. Kyneburgh's Hospital. 74 The United Hospitals were regulated by a scheme
of 1875, under which they were to house 21 almspeople aged at least 60, 75
and in 1882 they were amalgamated with St. Kyneburgh to form a single
institution, supporting 31 almspeople. 76 In 1890 St. Bartholomew was also
united with it, though the old St. Bartholomew's building in the Island remained
in use. The united hospital was to have a total of 71 inmates, paid weekly
stipends of 8-12s., and any surplus of income was to be paid to out-pensioners.
Its revenues were still drawn largely from land, comprising house property in
the city and farmland in various parishes in the county. 77 Much land, including
most of the city property, was sold between 1917 and 1927. 78
A Scheme of 1934 fixed the number of inmates at 61, and
in 1959 31 people were housed at each of the two sites and there were 81
out-pensioners.
The annual income in 1959 comprised £3,508 drawn from
stocks and shares, and £1,867 rental of farmland. 79 Alice Poulton, by her will
proved 1954 gave the residue of her personal estate, amounting to c. £5,000 in
stock and bonds, to provide coal, clothing, and provisions for the almspeople,
and a Scheme of 1971 applied that charity and three others administered by the
municipal charity trustees to the general support of the aalmshouses. 80 In the
mid 20th century the almspeople also received aid from parish
charities of St. Nicholas and St. Catharine. 81
The St. Bartholomew's building was given up in 1971 and
the hospital was concentrated on the London Road site, where a new block of
flats, behind the 19th century almshouses, was opened in 1978. In
1982 the charity opened another new block of flats, in Philip Street in the
upper Bristol Road area, and a third new block, in Sherburne Street west of
London Road, was opened in 1984.
In 1985 a total of 84 flats for old people was
maintained at the three sites. 82
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St Bartholomew's Hospital
St. Bartholomew's Hospital, the largest and wealthiest
of the three ancient hospitals, stood in the Island between Westgate bridge and
the Foreign bridge. In 1535 it supported a master, 5 priests, and 32 almspeople
out of its extensive property in Gloucester and outlying parishes, which brought
in an annual income of £95-7s-1d. 83 The Crown appointed governors
for the hospital in 1547 and 1549, 84 and in 1564 Queen Elizabeth
granted the patronage and the reversion of the hospital at the death of the
incumbent governor, John Mann, to the corporation; it was to maintain a priest,
physician, surgeon, and 40 almspeople and was to be styled the Hospital of St
Bartholomew `of the foundation of Queen Elizabeth' 85 An Act of
Parliament confirming the grant in 1566 made the bishop of Gloucester visitor to
the hospital, and successive bishops exercised that right, notably Martin Benson
who made some new regulations in 1745. 86 The corporation took
possession of the hospital on the resignation of Mann 87 and in the
years 1569-70 rebuilt 19 of the 40 almspeople's rooms and made considerable
improvements to other parts of the building. 88
Under the statutes of 1636 St. Bartholomew was to
maintain 50 almspeople (20 men and 30 women) at the weekly pay of 2s-6d. 89
William Capel then undertook to build six additional rooms for men. And the full
complement was apparently made up in 1648 when the common council decided to
place another four women in the hospital. The council planned to build four new
rooms in 1655, 90 and at the start of the 18th century,
the hospital housed 24 men and 30 women.91
In 1767 Jane Punter gave £500 stock to endow rooms for
six additional women, to be paid 1s a week. In 1781 £500 came to the hospital
under the will of Thomas Ratcliffe dated 1761 and it was decided to use it to
add 6d a week to the pay of Jane Punter's women and add two men. 92
In 1825, however, there were 23 men and 36 women in the
hospital. 93 The pay of the almspeople was increased by 1s in 1805,
that of the Punter women being apparently equalized with that of the others. 94
By 1830 the weekly pay had been increased to 5s-6d. 95.
Apart from those of Punter and Ratcliffe, other grants
supplemented the hospital's medieval endowments. A rent charge of 3s-4d a week
was distributed to the almspeople under the Crypt school charity established by
Joan Cooke in 1540, 96 and in 1859 £78 a year was assigned from that
foundation. 97 A payment of 5s a year was received under the charity
established by Sir Thomas Bell in 1562, 98 and Henry Cugley by will
dated 1594 gave £10 a year to buy provisions.
William Goldstone by will dated 1569 gave the hospital
houses and lands in St. Catherine's parish. Richard Pate in 1576 gave houses in
St. Mary de Lode parish, and Henry Brown by will dated 1659 gave 8 a. in Walham.
99 The ancient endowments of the hospital included small farms in
Uley, Brimpsfield, Coaley, Hardwicke, Longdon (Worcs), Castle Moreton (Worcs.),
and Minety (Glos., later Wilts.) with a total area of 431 a. in 1731, together
with parcels of land in several other parishes and extensive property in the
city; c. 62 houses belonged to the hospital in 1781 but the number was reduced
to 48 by the 1820's as the result of sales for land-tax redemption and
demolitions under city improvement Acts. The total rental of the hospital's
lands was £504 in 1781, rising to £889 by 1822 when fines, timber sales, and a
small income from stock brought its annual income up to c. £1,070. 1
Additional land, mainly in Awre, was bought for the hospital in the late 1870's
and early 1880's 2
The hospital was regulated by a Scheme of 1872 under
which the number of almspeople was to be allowed to fall to 40 people, aged at
least 60, and any surplus income was used to support non-resident pensioners. 3
In 1890 St. Bartholomew' was amalgamated with the United Hospitals. 4
The first buildings at the site of St. Bartholomew's
Hospital apparently dated from Henry II's reign. 5 A chantry chapel
was added c. 1236, 6 and in 1265 the Crown gave land for enlarging
the chancel.7 `A great house' of the poor on the west part of the
site was mentioned in 1380.8
Andrew Whitmay, prior of the hospital from 1510 and
suffragan bishop of Worcester diocese, 9 rebuilt the hospital on
higher foundations to raise it above flood level, adding also a `fair lodging'
for his own use. 10 Presumably that work was carried out after 1528
when John Cooke bequeathed £9 to secure the hospital against winter floods. 11
The buildings were said to be ruinous at the time of the grant of 1564, 12
following which considerable work on them was undertaken by the corporation. 13
In the 18th century the chapel, evidently not included in Whitmay's
rebuilding, remained a substantial building, mainly of the late 13th
century or early 14th 14. Between 1787 and 1790 the
hospital was completely rebuilt by the corporation. The new building, designed
in gothick style by William price, had a road front with blind arcading, the
central bays projecting, 15 and a semicircular bay at the rear which
housed the chapel. 16 Following its sale by the municipal charity
trustees, it was restored in the early 1980's as a shopping and craft centre.
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St Margaret's Hospital
St Margaret's Hospital, which stood outside the city
boundary on the south-east side of the
London road, had passed into the control of the burgess
community by the late Middle Ages and leading burgesses were appointed to the
post of master. 17 In 1546 the hospital had an annual income of £8-12s-0d.,
18 and in 1563 the inmates were a reader and 10 poor men. 19
Under the statutes of 1636 it was to support a reader and 8 men at the weekly
pay of 2s a week each 20 and its complement of almspeople remained
unchanged. In 1805 their pay was increased by 1s a wek, 21 and they
were receiving 4s a week in 1825. Those almsmen who were married at the time of
their election were allowed to bring their wives into the hospital. 22
The hospital's ancient endowments included houses in
the city and parcels of land in the outlying hamlets and other parts of the
county. The total rental was £58 in 1781, and £137 in 1822, when the number of
houses owned, recently increased by new building, was 22. 23 Under
the will of Thomas Horton dated 1735 but not confirmed until 1763, St. Margarets'
and St. Mary Magdalen's Hospital shared a rent charge of £10 given for
provisions and for a sermon and prayers, and in the proceeds of £100. 24
Alderman John Hayward (d 1758) gave a rent charge of 40s to be distributed among
the almsmen of St Margaret at Christmas, and they also received any residue of
£15 which was to be paid every five years for repairing Hayward's tomb and part
of the pavement in the hospital chapel. 25 In 1822 the total annual
income of the hospital was £170. 26 St. Margaret's Hospital was
united with St Mary Magdalen in 1861. 27
The hospital was founded before the mid 12th
century 28 and the surviving two-celled chapel incorporates 12th
century masonry in its west wall. The chapel appears, however, to have been
rebuilt in the early 14th century, and new windows were put into the
nave in the 15th. The chapel was restored in 1846 and again in 1875; 29
a south vestry was added, the roof was renewed, and the interior was refitted.
As well as serving the inmates of the hospital the chapel was used over the
centuries by inhabitants of the neighbouring suburbs. That was possibly the
reason why in the late Middle Ages the chantry priest maintained by Gloucester
Abbey in the chapel was sometimes styled rector 30 and why in the mid
16th century the chapel was said to be parochial. 31
The registers, which survive from the 1790's, include
baptisms and burials of residents of the neighbouring London Road area. 32
Use of the chapel by outsiders was probably encouraged by the fact that parts of
the area belonged to the extraparochial North and South Hamlets and other parts
to St. Catherine's parish, 33 which had no church after 1655. The
chapel remained in use
By the almspeople in 1985.
In 1560 the domestic buildings included the former
prior's lodging, then leased, and the almsmen's lodgings. 34 An old
hall is said to have been converted to a barn c. 1589. 35 In the
early 19th century the buildings comprised a single tall range,
partly timber-framed, and partly stone-built, fronting the main road east of the
chapel. 36 It was demolished in 1862 when the new United Hospitals
were opened on an adjoining site. 37
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St Mary Magdalen's Hospital
St. Mary Magdalen's Hospital, known alternatively from
1617 as King James's Hospital, stood on the south side of the London road
further out than St. Margaret, near Wotton Pitch. In 1546 it had annual revenues
of £3-6s-8d, 38 and in 1563 maintained a reader and six poor men and women.
39
The Crown, which had assumed rights as patron exercised before the Dissolution
by Llanthony Priory, 40 appointed governors of the hospital in the later 16th
century. In 1573, when John Fenner (or Spring) was appointed, 41 the hospital
and all its revenues were held by John Norris under a lease from an earlier
governor and the almspeople were left unsupported. After an inquiry Norris was
ordered to give up the hospital in 1576. 42
In 1598 the hospital was said to be in ruins and Elizabeth I granted the
patronage to the corporation so that they could carry out repairs. 43
By 1614 an additional 13 almspeople were being
maintained at St. Mary Magdalen by its governor, Alderman Thomas Machen, and at
his death that year he left £100 to the corporation to support a payment of 6d
a quarter to each of them. 44 In 1617 James I granted the governorship of the
hospital and its lands and revenues, including a pension of £13 from the Crown,
to the corporation; the hospital was to continue to maintain 19 almspeople and
was to be renamed the Hospital of King James (though the old name also remained
in use).45
The statutes of 1636 provided for 10 men and 9 women to
be maintained at the weekly pay of 1s-6d., 46 and the number of almspeople
remained unchanged. The weekly pay was increased by 6d in 1805, 47 but in 1824,
as an economy measure, the pay of the newly elected inmates was set at 1s-6d.
48
In 1827 the sum of £4 a year, an ancient bequest to the city poor by Leonard Tarne, was added to the weekly pay,
49 and from 1838 the almspeople at St. Mary
Magdalen and St. Kyneburgh had an additional 6d. a week, the proceeds of £1,500
received under the will of John Garn (d. 1835).50
The ancient endowments comprised a farm at Hayden, in
Cheltenham parish, which covered 58 a. in 1731, some parcels of land in the
outlying hamlets of Gloucester, and a few houses in the city. In 1822 the total
rental was £155 and the total annual income of the hospital was c. £170. The
hospital was by then in an impoverished state, a debt of £522 having
accumulated. It was hoped that building then in progress on some of the
hospital's land in the London road would eventually improve the finances, but it
was still in debt and its buildings ruinous in 1833. 51 St. Mary Magdalen was
united with St. Margaret's Hospital in 1861. 52
St Mary Magdalen's Hospital was probably founded in the
early 12th century 53 and its small two-celled chapel dating from
that period survived relatively unaltered until the mid 19th century.
A lancet window was put into the north wall of the chancel in the 13th
century, the east window was enlarged in the 15th, and the chancel
roof was renewed and a new window put in the south side in the 16th.
A west porch of brick was added in the late 18th century or early 19th,
and a small west bellcot contained a bell cast by John Rudhall in 1793. 54 By
the 1840's the inmates of the hospital attended St. Margaret's chapel and St.
Mary Magdalen's chapel became dilapidated. 55 In 1861 the nave was demolished
but the richly ornamented south doorway was reset, facing east, in the chancel
arch, and the north doorway was set in the south wall of the chancel. 56 The
east window was probably restored at that time. The chapel contains the
recumbent effigy of a lady, said to have been brought from St. Kyneburgh's
cahpel. 57 The chapel was no longer used in 1985.
St. Mary Magdalen's chapel, like St. Margaret's was
said to serve a separate parish in the mid 16th century. 58 From at
least the early 18th century inhabitants of Wotton, including members
of the Blanch family, were buried in the chapel and its burial ground 59 and
burials and baptisms pf people from
various neighbouring areas were being registered there in the 1790's. 60 John
Blanch (d. 1756) of Barton Street devised £300 in reversion to maintain a
minister to read service and preach in the chapel on Sundays; the gift was
conditional on the inhabitants of Wotton raising another £100 61 and was
apparently never implemented.
The main London road formerly ran close to the north
side of the chapel 62 but in 1821 it was diverted to the south side,
63 dividing
the chapel from the domestic buildings of the hospital which formed a quadrangle
some way to the south. 64 The buildings, which were wholly or partly timber-
framed, 65 were refronted following the road diversion, 66 and were demolished
in or soon after 1861. 67
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St Kyneburgh's Hospital
St Kyneburgh's Hospital, commonly called the Kimbrose,
was founded by Sir Thomas bell, the wealthy Gloucester capper, on the site of
St. Kyneburgh's chapel at the south gate. Bell had built and almshouse there by
1559 when he drew up his will leaving it, with endowments, to the city
corporation. 68 In 1562, however, he settled it on a body of
trustees, who took possession after the deaths of Bell and his wife Joan 69
in 1566 and 1567 respectively. 70 Under the terms of the trust deed
the hospital was to maintain six poor people, one of them to be if possible a
burgess. It gave the site of Whitefriars, Morin's Mill in Brook Street, six
houses, and the rent of another house, having a total nominal value if £16-0s-4d.,
to support a quarterly payment of 13s-4d to each of the almspeople, and gave
substantial endowments for other charitable purposes and to provide for property
repairs. The trustees did not, as was intended, fill vacancies in their own
number and only two remained in 1598 when they acquired licence to transfer the
hospital and its endowments to the corporation. The transfer, which was prompted
by the corporation's energetic management of St. Bartholomew's Hospital after
1564, was completed in 1603 71 and the corporation retained St.
Kyneburgh under its direct management until 1836.
The original endowment was supplemented by the gift of
a house from Thomas Hobbs in 1608, 72 and Margaret Norton by will
dated 1689 gave the interest on £30, 73 for which £1 a year was
received in the 1820's. In 1763 Susanna Cooke gave £40 for provisions on St.
Thomas's day, and £2 in cash was distributed for that gift in the 1820's. 74
In 1833 the annual income of the hospital was £42. The inmates, whose number
remained at six, were then receiving 1s-6d. a week each and an annual sum of £10-7s.
divided amongst them. 75 A plan in 1835 to use surplus funds to buy
stock and raise the weekly pay by 6d. a week 76 may not have been
implemented but an increase at that rate was made in 1838 under John Garn's
bequest. 77
In the mid 19th century the almshouse
remained as built by Bell, comprising a low range of building with five doorways
to the almsrooms. 78 An older building, which survived adjoining the
west end, housed the sixth almsman. 79 The almshouse was demolished
after 1862 when the inmates were rehoused in the new building on London road. 80
A Scheme of 1861 increased the number of almspeople to 10, who were to be aged
at least 60 and receive between 7s-6d and 10s a week. 81 St.
Kyneburgh was amalgamated with the United Hospitals in 1882. 82
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Other Almshouses
A number of other almshouses were established in
Gloucester in the late 16th century and in the 17th but
some were short lived, probably as a result of lack of endowment.
Alderman William
Hill (d. 1636) left £80 to build a house outside the south gate in which
six poor people of the south ward were to be placed by the corporation. 83
The house was built and almspeople were regularly maintained there by the
corporation, 84 though there was apparently no endowment for repairs
or weekly pay. Sarah Wright by will dated 1667 gave 6s. a year to buy coal for
the almspeople. 85 The house was demolished at the same time as the
south gate in 1781 and the existing almspeople were found other lodgings. They
were not, however, replaced when they died and only two remained c. 1811. 86
Alderman John
Baugh (d. 1621) devised the
remainder of his 300 year lease of the former St. Thomas's chapel, by the river
Twyver in the later Dean's Walk, for an almshouse and devised an adjoining
orchard to provide for maintenance of the building, which was divided into four
tenements; the master and four almsmen of St. Bartholomew's
Hospital were to settle poor burgesses there. In 1631, however, the
administrator of Baugh's will assigned the lease to a Gloucester mercer, 87
and following a Chancery suit brought by the corporation it was conveyed in 1633
to a group of common councillors who were to implement the will. 88
It is not known whether almsmen were ever settled in the building, which was
demolished before 1692, probably at the siege of 1643. 89
Alderman John
Hayward (d. 1640) built two almshouses near St. John's church and left other
property to St. John's parish as an endowment. 90 Two widows were
houses there in 1738 when Alderman Samuel Browne left a rent charge of 10s. to
help support them. 91 The houses were pulled down in 1804 and the
widows were moved to two new houses built on parish property adjoining lower
Northgate Street. The widows each received an annual pension of 50s. in the
early 19th century 92 and £16 in the 1890's. 93
The houses were apparently sold c. 1934, and by the early 1960's the proceeds of
the endowment were being applied for general charitable purposes in the parish. 94
Almshouses founded by Mr Pate, presumably Richard Pate (d. 1588), and by Alderman Thomas
Semys (d. 1603) were said to have existed in 1643, and Richard
Keylock, presumably the man who served as sheriff in 1627, was said to have
provided houses for two men in St. John's parish. Nothing was known of those
three foundations in the mid 18th century. 95 Almshouses
recorded in Holy Trinity parish between 1614 and 1645 96 were
apparently four houses in Bull lane given by a Mr
Peach, 97 and John Cromwell
by will dated 1679 left two houses in Hare Lane to be used, after the deaths
of the tenants, to house poor people of St. John's parish' 98 no
later record has been found of those almshouses in use. John
Harvey Ollney (d. 1836) left £8,000 to the city corporation to found an
almshouse for 18 poor people and provide them with a weekly allowance. 99 The
corporation obtained a site for the house, apparently as a gift in 1846 1
but Chancery proceedings begun in 1848 to secure the legacy and similar gifts to
Tewkesbury, Cheltenham, and Winchcombe, were unsuccessful. 2
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