Page:The histories of Launceston and Dunheved, in the county of Cornwall.djvu/53

ST. LEONARD'S HOSPITAL. 37 patron saint of prisoners, and numerous chapels were dedicated to him. There was at a very early age a chapel so dedicated at Launceston. We speak of the site of the old Priory and of its adjunct St. Stephen, not of Dunheved. There is in the possession of the Town Council of Dun- heved an original charter, which they have courteously permitted us to translate. It has no actual date ; but Robert Fissacre, who granted it, was Prior before the year 1258. Richard, the son of King John, and who assented to and witnessed the deed, was Earl of Cornwall from 1227 to 1272; and another witness, Richard, Bishop of Exeter, held his episcopate from 1245 to I2 S7- We will give the document in full. To all men who shall see and hear this present Charter, Robert by permission of God, Prior of Lanceueton, and the Convent of the same plate, greeting in the Lord. Know all men that we have given and granted, and by this our present Charter have con- firmed, with the common assent and consent of the whole of our Convent, and by the will of our Lord Richard, Earl of Cornwall, for us and for our successors, the whole land of Gillemartin with the Chapel of the same place, and the oblations, and all the goods accruing to the said Chapel, Together with the houses and the meadows, and all other their appurtenances and liberties, To the Lepers of Gillemartin, at Lanceueton, in pure and perpetual alms, for an exchange which they have made with us of their Tenement which they had in Lanceueton, of which Earl Brian of Cornwall heretofore enfeoffed them, that is to say, that land which Philip formerly held : To have and to hold to them and their successors freely, quietly, peaceably and wholly, as any other land or charity may better and more freely be given. And I have given and con- firmed, in pure and perpetual alms, as the boundaries there wind, to wit, as the water of the Kensi descends into the river Tambie (Tamar), and so ascending by the water of the Kensi even to the ditch of Wittemore, and near that ditch as far as the well which is at the head of the causeway, so that they may have the rivulet of that well for their offices ; and along near the causeway even to the wall of the cemetery of the aforesaid Chapel; and thence towards the North, as far as the land of the Park, and