Annals of Christ's Hospital / by E.H. Pearce.

  • Ernest Pearce
Date:
1901
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Annals of Christ's Hospital / by E.H. Pearce. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    men of a northern clime. Of these nine, four pushed on to London, and received their first lodging in the house of their great rivals, the Dominicans, the Brothers Preachers, with whom they spent a fortnight. Then, by the kind offices of some clerical friends, they hired the dwelling of Mr. Sheriff John Travers “ in vico Cornhulle,” where they built some cells, but not a chapel, and remained till the following summer. Clearly their work began to tell, and the usual overcrowd- ing of their “ shelter ” was the result. The place where they dwelt was too strait for them, and too salubrious. They had no right to be upon the pleasant eminence of Cornhill; the air was not bad enough nor pestilential enough. If he is the true benefactor who gives us just what we most want, then the Franciscan found such a one at this moment. For Mr. John Iwyn, or Ewen, citizen and mercer, had a property in Stynkyng Lane and in the parish of St. Nicholas Shambles (the very names must have made the Franciscan mouth water with their possibilities of sickness and smells), and he was ready to make this over to the Order as their future dwell- ing. The deed of conveyance is to be read at the end of six centuries and a half, and may be found in Leland’s Collectanea. Iwyn there describes that the gift was made “ for the health of [his] soul, in pure and perpetual alms,” in order “ to enter- tain the poor Fryers-Minors as long as they will stay there.” It is due to this cheerful giver that Christ’s Hospital stands where it is to-day. Two things will readily suggest themselves to any who look into the matter: first, that the Franciscan must have commended his cause to the people by the work that he did among them, for Iwyn not only handed over his land, but shortly after himself also, and he died a pious brother of the order; secondly, that the civic authorities recognised the mission and accorded it their sympathy. There is no reason to doubt the statement of the Chronicler of the Grey Friars that it was the devotio civium which made this change of abode possible, for the deed is witnessed by the Mayor, the Sheriffs, the Alderman of the Ward and other citizens. Iwyn’s example was soon followed. We have the names
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