A HISTORY OF LONDON siastical benefices were similarly to be with- drawn." There is, unfortunately, no evidence whether these measures were carried out, but when an inquiry was made in 1308 as to the inmates who had died since 1290 and as to those still surviving, no information was forthcoming about certain men and women,'^ a fact which might be accounted for on the supposition ^' that they were gaining a livelihood elsewhere. The king also directed that the two priests and the clerk who served in the chapel were to be resident and were to collect the rents of the house and distribute them to the inmates as the warden advised.'* The king's intention was evidently to reform the administration, a change in which had been much needed in 1272. The inmates of the hospital were then said to be begging from door to door, and to be almost perishing of hunger, because rich converts, who had other means of support, and who did not live in the house, received the revenues which ought to have been assigned only to the poor converts dwelling there.'* Considering that this house was largely dependent on the royal bounty and that the management of its income was not always exemplary, it is curious that the warden was not bound to render an account to the Exchequer.'* The result of the king's grants in aid of their finance was disappointing, and in 1 28 1 he ordered that beside the poll-tax the converts should have 80 marks from the issues of the Jewry during his pleasure. '^ Funds were specially needed during this period to complete '* the extensive alterations to the chapel begun in 1275." The converts in 1 290 petitioned that the king would provide for them by giving them churches and escheats, as the grants from the Exchequer were paid very irregularly, but he did not assent to their request : ^^ the expulsion of the Jews from England which occurred in that year may have, been already under con- sideration, and it would certainly have been " Cal. of Pat. 1272-81, p. 376. " Rymer, Foedera (Rec. Com.), ii (i), 62. " This supposition is, however, doubtful, for one of the women, about whom nothing was knoivn, was only prevented from appearing before the commis- sioners by illness, and petitioned for her allowance in I 31 5. Cal. of Close, I 31 3-18, p. 184. '* Cal. of Pat. 1272-81, p. 371. " Pat. 56 Hen III, pt. 1, m. 10, quoted by Tovey, op cit. 194, 195. '° In 1286 John de St. Denis, keeper of the Domus Conversorum, was exonerated from rendering an account to the Exchequer as his predecessors never did so. Cal. of Pat. 1281-92, p. 228. " CaL of Close, 1279-88, p. 99. "In 1281 the justices in Eyre were ordered to pay deodands to tlie warden of the House of Converts to complete the fabric of the chapel. Ibid. 107. " Ibid. 1272-9, p. 207. ^ Par!. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 49. useless to endow permanently an institution which would soon come to an end. In Feb- ruary, 1292, he granted to the members of the house ;^202 OS. ^d. a year, this sum including the wages of the chaplains, and the portions of the converts, 10^^. a week in the case of a man, 8(f. for a woman ; as each inmate died the amount was to be proportionately diminished.*' Of the ninety-seven who were there in 1292 about fifty-two survived in 1308, and the sum due from the king was accordingly reduced to
- ^I23 I OS. dd.^^
A complaint, ostensibly by the converts, was made to the king in 1315 that the warden, Adam de Osgodeby, kept them out of their houses, and let them to strangers for the term of three lives to the king's prejudice.^' On inquiry by the chancellor, however, the affair resolved itself into an attempt by William de Crekelade, one of the chaplains, to regain a footing in the house from which he had been expelled by the former warden for defamation of the rest of the community. The converts, far from taking his side, declared him unfit to live in the house, and said that the warden paid him his wages against their will. They also showed that the tenements had been leased for the profit of the house with the consent of all, William included, and he was accordingly remitted to the warden for punishment.^ As the time approached when the extinction of the house might be reasonably expected, Edward III gave it fresh life by placing there the children of some converts ^' and certain con- verted Jews from foreign countries.^' Still the inmates must have been few in number from 1 344, when they seem to have been only eight."' In 1350 they had dwindled to four, and in 1 37 1 there were only two."^ The small amount allotted to the hospital may be the " Rymer, Foedera (Rec. Com.), ii (i), 62. " Ibid. " CaL of Close, 1313-18, p. 228. » Ibid. "Two children of a conversa in 1336. Cal. of Pat. 1334-8, p. 259. Two sons of a conversus in 1337. Ibid. p. 494. The son of a conversa in 1344. Ibid. 1 343-5, p. 213. See also case of Agnes, daughter of a convert in I 349. Ibid. 1348-50, p. 363. "Edward of Brussels was sent there in 1339. Ibid. 1348-50, p. 400. Janethus of Spain was to receive the same allowance as the others of the house in 1344. Ibid. 1343-5, p. 190. A similar grant was made to Theobald of Turkey in 1348. Ibid. 1348-50, p. 87. The king ordered Henry de Ingleby, the warden, in 1356 to let John de Chastell, a convert, who had lately come to England, have the usual maintenance in the hospital. Close, 30 Edw. Ill, m. 13, quoted by Tovey, op. cit. 223. " Cal. of Close, 1343-6, p. 313. It seems doubt- ful, however, whether the new inmates were included in this account. "" W. J. Hardy, ' The Rolls House and Chapel,' Midd. and Herts. N. and Q. ii, 57. 552
