The confusing years

 There is a short period in the history of the Charterhouse which has confused everyone who has researched it.  That period covers the years 1539 to 1553.

On 9 November 1539 the Carthusian Priory next door to the almshouse was closed.  The closure came late in the countrywide dissolution of religious houses, probably because it was relatively poor.  The Prior, Ralph Mauleverer, and his 6 remaining monks were given their pensions and sent on their way.  The lands which the de la Pole family had bestowed on the Priory reverted to the Crown.  The rest of the de la Pole lands in the manor of Myton had been under the lordship of Sir William Sidney since 1514.  So much is more or less clear.  But how did this affect the almshouse which later took on the name of the priory, the Charterhouse?

A timeline is useful:

• 1503/4 Edmund de la Pole attainted and his lands seized by the Crown
• 1514 Sir William Sidney granted the lordship of the manor of Myton
• 1535 William Mann becomes Master of the Charterhouse
• 1539 Priory dissolved
• 1547 Death of King Henry VIII
• 1548 Act seizing for the Crown all religious foundations which paid priests to say mass in perpetuity
• 1551 or 1552 Simon Kemsey becomes Master of the Charterhouse
• 1552 King Edward VI granted lordship of the manor of Myton to the town of Hull
• 1552 Edward VI succeeded by Queen Mary I
• 1553 Charter of Mary I confirms Edward's grants

Some early historians believed that when the Priory was closed in 1539 the almshouse was also closed.  John Cook, in his The History of God's House of Hull of 1882, argued against that.  He cites a certificate which, he says, was probably produced for the Commissioners under the 1548 Act and which gives details of the hospital. It was founded for 13 men and 13 women, but at that point had only 6 inmates. Although it was in a decayed state, it had not been dissolved and did not need to be re-founded.  The dissolution of the Priory would have meant that the Mayor and Aldermen were the last backstop of authority under the founding charter.  They seem to have done nothing to promote the almshouse's interests.  Or was it the case that there had been no income in this period from the lands which had (or had not) been confiscated?  However, the Mayor and Aldermen would have appointed the new Master, Simon Kemsey, in 1551 or 1552 (sources vary).  It was a curious appointment.  Kemsey had been the bailiff of the Yorkshire lands of Sir William Sidney, and in 1555 he was to become Hull's Town Clerk. In his brief four-year period as Master Kemsey is thought to have built himself a house, perhaps the first Master's house. The Bench Books record, in October 1555, that the Mayor and Burgesses granted Kemsey and his heirs in fee farm (a form of rent) “the capital mansion house and garden of the hospital near unto Hull” with various lands. But a number of documents from September and October 1556 show that he was persuaded to hand it over to his successor, Laurence Allen for £20. He was bound in the sum of 200 marks “to abide by the award of the Mayor and others as to the mastership” and a feoffment was issued in the consideration of £20 with a letter of attorney to deliver the property to Allen.

In 1552 the young King Edward VI granted the lordship of the manor of Myton to the town, along with part of the dissolved monastery.  Edward died in July of the same year and his successor, his half-sister Mary, granted a charter in December 1553 which confirmed those grants.

1553 Charter of Mary I, in the collection of the Hull History Centre

From then on the position was clear.  The lands which provided the income for the almshouse were secure and the Mayor and Aldermen were in charge.  It wasn't to be plain sailing - but that's another story.