Suffolk Palace

 Every Hull person is familiar with the old post office building in the city centre.  

It's on the corner of Lowgate and Alfred Gelder Street and was opened in 1909.  It survived the war and later enthusiastic developers and was converted for residential and commercial use some years ago.  Less noticed is a blue plaque on the building.

This was the site of the Suffolk Palace, home of our founder Michael de la Pole, 1st Earl of Suffolk.  The 16th century historian John Leland described it as "a goodly house lyke a palace" and states that Michael built three other houses in the town.  Presumably they were not all for his own use.  The "palace" was not the first house on the site.  Richard Oysel built a dwelling there between 1296 and 1307, and it passed to William de la Pole in 1330.  William's son Michael rebuilt it in 1380.

This image of the palace comes from the Cotton MSS.  The gatehouse-gazetteer website tells us: "An inventory of 1388 refers to a hall, summer hall, great chamber, numerous further chambers, a chapel, two wine cellars, a kitchen, a bakehouse, a granary and two dovecotes amongst various other buildings.  Documentary sources from the mid 16th century describe the building as a mansion and depict it as a series of courtyards bounded by a wall and containing a gatehouse, great hall, and chamber blocks. The four storey gatehouse was built of brick and stone, as was the great hall which had a buttery and pantry to the east with a chamber above and a great chamber to the west. A magazine was recorded on the site in 1642. The majority of the buildings were demolished in the late 17th century, though the gatehouse survived until 1771."  

The plaque tells us that the palace was "seized by the Crown" in 1504.  That would be the point when Edmund de la Pole, 3rd Duke of Suffolk, was accused of treason.  Other authorities put the date as 1513 when he was executed.  As with most of such seized properties, it was leased out for a time before Henry VIII bought it back.  He stayed at the palace for a few days in October 1540 and again in 1541 when he held a privy council meeting there.

Inevitably the complex of buildings fell into disrepair and were demolished, and nothing now remains; only the plaque reminds us of this remarkable palace.

The Priory that gave us our name

On 18 February 1378 Michael de la Pole put his name to a document setting out his establishment of a Carthusian priory outside the walls of Kingston upon Hull.  He was following, he said, the intentions of his late father William, who had wanted to build " a certain Religious House of Nuns, or Poor Sisters Minoresses Regular, of the Order of St. Clare" instead of the hospital for the poor he had originally planned. Michael preferred a priory for males of the Carthusian order because "their Rules will be kept more safely, and with more Vigilance and Devotion, than by Women". Walter de Kele was to be the first Prior. Michael lists the lands with which he is endowing the Priory.
As with the 1384 document founding the Maison Dieu, there is confusion about whether the hospital, or Maison Dieu, already existed, but we will skip that argument here.
Two religious houses already existed in Hull. The White Friars, or Carmelites, were established here in around 1290, and the Black Friars, or Austin Friars, in 1317. Both friaries are still remembered in Hull street names. The Carthusians were a very different order. They were founded 1084 by Bishop Bruno of Grenoble in the Chartreuse mountains and, to quote from the English Heritage website,       "The purpose of Carthusian life was total withdrawal from the world to serve God by personal devotion and privation. While other monks lived communally, Carthusians rarely met one another, passing the long day in the isolation of their cells and The monks’ lives were ordered by a strict timetable. They followed the same daily round of eight offices (or prayers) as monks of other religious orders. But uniquely, they only celebrated the night offices and the afternoon office of Vespers together regularly in the church, and Mass less frequently. Otherwise they said their offices and celebrated Mass alone in their cells. Only on Sundays and feast days was the monastic day different. On these days, the monks dined together, met to discuss business and discipline, and celebrated all offices in the church."
It was an unusual choice by Michael; there were only ever 10 Carthusian houses in England.  There is no contemporary description of the priory.  The earliest picture of it comes from the Cotton MSS and is dated to around 1538.

The orientation of it is thought to be skewed.
A century later the Hollar plan gives us more detail but the central tower has gone.

(This comes from a conservation document produced by the Hull City Council.  This document also reproduces a drawing purporting to be the ruined gateway to the priory done by Thomas Tindall Wildridge and published in Cook's 1882 history of the Charterhouse, but we now know that it is a fake, a copy of a much earlier etching of Coverham Abbey gateway.)
We can be confident about where the priory was; it was situated just to the west of our current buildings.  Some physical evidence of that was uncovered in 1805 by those digging the foundations of a housing development on the site.  They found skeletons but no coffins.  Carthusians bury their dead wrapped in simple shrouds and without coffins.  But no archaeology has ever been done on the area, and post-war building work may mean that nothing remains.
At its peak the Hull Priory would have had a similar lay-out to Mount Grace Priory near Allerton.  Enough remains of that to reconstruct it.

Although Michael de la Pole stipulated in the founding document of his Maison Dieu in 1384 that the Prior was to have supervision over the Master, there was probably little interaction between the two establishments.  One of the few insights we have into the life of the Priory comes from a document in the archives of Ewelme in Oxfordshire, the home of William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk and grandson of Michael, and his wife Alice (granddaughter of Geoffrey Chaucer).  It is an indenture given by the widowed Duchess.  It tells us, incidentally, that the Duke had granted the Priory the manor of Rimswell in 1439, but the meat of it is that the instruction that a monk was to say a daily mass and prayers for the Duchess and her son john, the Duke; images of the Duchess and the late Duke to a particular design were to be set up in the refectory of the Priory; and the monks were to give bread and ale to two "almsfolk" every day, on pain of forfeiting Rimswell.  One other surprise comes from this document; it refers consistently to the priory "and convent".  This is the only indication I have seen that at some stage the priory included a section for Carthusian nuns.  Whether this involvement of the de la Poles was maintained for long after Alice's death is doubtful.
Little more is recorded of the priory's history until 1535.  Henry VIII had begun his closure of the monasteries and confiscation of their property, and was said to have a particular dislike of Carthusians.  Hull's priory had a total annual value of the house in 1535 was £231 17s. 3d., and the clear annual value only £174 18s. 3d.  It therefore came under the operation of the Act for the suppression of the lesser monasteries, but it received the king's licence to continue.  Why it was selected for exemption is not known, but the breathing space meant that it could give shelter to two refugees from the London Charterhouse.  The monks there had refused to acquiesce in Henry's Act of Supremacy and most were executed in the spring of 1535.  Two, John Rochester and James Walworth, were seized and brought to the Hull priory.  Both are listed among the 13 members of the community listed in the Suppression Papers in 1536.  However, following the uprising of the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536, the King felt the need to demonstrate his power in one of its flashpoints, York.  Rochester and Walworth were taken from Hull to York and executed on 11 May 1537.

A commemorative plaque was placed on the wall of our main building 20 years ago.  It is somewhat misleading about where the Priory actually stood.
















The King's enforcers finally came for the Priory late in 1539.  Seven members were given pensions, including the Prior Ralph Mauleverey.  At least two of these are known to have found refuge in Charterhouses in Europe.  The land owned by the Priory, including the land on which it stood, was confiscated by the Crown.  But the hospital, as a separate foundation with its own endowment, was not affected.
A year or two later John Leland in his Itinerary tells us:

If those "trowehes of Leade" did indeed contain the bones of members of the de la Pole family it is not known what happened to them.  The land was leased to Thomas Alured who had come to Hull in the 1540s as paymaster of the garrison, and stayed as a customer of the port.  Both he and his eldest son represented Hull as MPs, and later generations followed suit.  Their official address was "the Charterhouse" and it was not until the rebuilding of the hospital after the Civil War that the term began to be applied to it.

Useful sources include https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/yorks/vol3/pp190-192  and  http://www.histparl.ac.uk/volume/1604-1629/member/alured-thomas-1583-1638.  

The Chapel

Christian worship was not just integral to the life of Michael de la Pole's Maison Dieu; it was its whole point.  Like the Carthusian priory next door, it was established to provide a bank of people engaged in prayer for the souls of Michael and his family, to speed them through Purgatory.  So the chapel was the hub of the place, and the Master's main job was to say Mass and lead divine service.
So it's curious that it wasn't until 1394, ten years after the licence and charter for the Maison Dieu, that Pope Boniface IX issued a papal bull (order) to Michael de la Pole, 2nd Earl of Suffolk, giving permission for "masses and other divine offices" to be said in the two chapels erected near the hospital his father had built.  Had the hospital managed without a chapel for 10 years?  Had someone forgotten to ask permission?  Had there been a hold-up with the paperwork in Rome?  The chapels were said to be "near" the hospital, rather than part of it.  And why were there two?  It seems implausible that men and women were segregated into different buildings.
No subsequent records for centuries give us any information about the appearance or use of the chapels.  While a great deal of research has been done on medieval church life and faith, almshouses are a neglected area.  We can only follow the effects of the upheavals which Henry VIII set in train through the men who were appointed as Masters, and assume that our chapel mirrored what was going on in parish churches.  The closure of the priory in 1539 left the hospital isolated, but from the appointment of Thomas Turner as Master in 1558 with a dual role as assistant at Holy Trinity (now the Minster) a strong connection with the parish church was established which was to continue for many years.
By 1582 there were only 12 inmates in the hospital.  Financial accounts of the period tell us a little about the buildings, which included kitchens, a chicken house and a buttery, but there is no mention of a chapel.  However, in 1626, when Andrew Marvell senior had been Master for two years, the accounts show that the old building and the chapel had been repaired.  It was the last time this chapel was mentioned.  In 1642 all the buildings were demolished to make way for a garrison at the start of the Civil War.  Inmates decamped to a building on Silver Street and, it seems, used Holy Trinity for their worship.  After the war, when the first phase of rebuilding started in 1649 it seems to have been without a chapel.  Did the Charterhouse residents go to the nearest church, perhaps St Mary's, or was a worship space improvised within the building?  The second phase of rebuilding added a chapel in 1673, the work of William Catlyn.  In 1724 a crude sketch was made of this chapel and appeared in John Cook's book of 1882.

These buildings lasted just over a century.  In 1777 all of them were demolished; only the bell from the chapel was salvaged.  It was made in 1670 by William Sellers of York.  It was rehung in the cupola above the new chapel and is still rung for services.  The grand new hospital integrated the chapel into the main structure.  The Victoria County History describes it in detail:

"The chapel occupies the middle of the north side of the building and projects from its north wall. The interior retains its original oak fittings and survives almost unaltered. It is lit by a tall round-headed window in each of the east and west walls and by a central dome in the roof. There is a dentil cornice and the enriched plaster ceiling is divided into three panels by raised bands of guilloche ornament. The stone slabs paving the floor have small squares of slate at their intersections. At the east end of the chapel the altar, raised on three steps, is enclosed by original rails with heavy turned balusters. Five rows of box-pews are stepped up against the west wall and there are similar pews on the south side flanking the central entrance from the corridor. This entrance has a carved doorcase and a segmental pediment. In the middle of the north wall is an enclosed area with a panelled front, curved in the centre; spacious pews for the master and officers occupy the two sides of the area while in the middle a fine semicircular pulpit, the most striking feature of the chapel, projects from the north wall. It is surmounted by a sounding-board and supported on a bracket some distance from the ground. Access to it is from a door at the rear leading to the vestry.  The drum of the pulpit and the frieze behind it are elaborately carved with swags of drapery and other ornament."

There was also a small vault beneath the altar, in which around five Masters and their wives were buried, but the vault was sealed at some point in the 19th century (there is no record of when) and the only evidence of its presence are two small arches in the brickwork of the eastern wall, and the memorial plaques which tell us the person was "interred in the vault below".  During the 2018 restoration work some human bones were disturbed below the altar, and were re-interred with appropriate ceremony.

It is the orientation of the chapel which strikes people first, and the pulpit which faces you as you enter.  When it was built it must have seemed far too big for the 44 residents housed around it, but by the second half of the 19th century, after many more rooms had been added, it would have a been a squeeze to fit them all in.

An anonymous 19th century sketch shows the chapel looking rather drab.  A few memorials have been fixed to the walls and benches have appeared to supplement the seating.  There was no heating.  A stove was later put in, but it caused complaints about fumes.  At some point a harmonium was installed to accompany the singing.  In 1901, when the governance of the Charterhouse was handed over to trustees, permission was given to replace it with an organ, and the local firm of Forster & Andrews built a splendid one in the south-east corner.  Later, electric light was installed, and there was a failed experiment with a sound system.

The Charterhouse was closed in 1941 after blast damage caused by bombing, and it was neglected and left to fall into a dreadful state.  A photograph taken after the war shows the damage to the chapel.

It was restored, along with the rest of the buildings, and re-opened in 1948.  More than 30 years later, after a major redevelopment of the complex, the chapel underwent a complete refurbishment.  A gas-fired heating system was installed and ornate chandeliers replaced the pendant lights.  On 8 July 1981 the Archbishop of York, Stuart Blanch, led a service of re-dedication.

The decoration of the chapel has always depended largely on the tastes of the Master of the time.  Until 2017 it was maintained in the rather plain state shown in the photo above.  A new Master brought a different sensibility.  But the chapel was quickly closed when a survey discovered that the floor was in a dangerous state.  Extensive work was done to fix that and install a new heating system.  The opportunity was taken to put in an effective sound system, so that, probably for the first time, everyone could hear what was going on.  While the chapel was closed services were held in the hall.

On 12 May 2019 a service of re-hallowing was led by the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu.

Our current chapel has been in use for almost 240 years, continuing a much older tradition.

A rare find

This turned up on ebay last week, so I bought it, and it's quite a find.  The only other copy we know of is in the Master's house.
It's a small book with a flimsy and damaged cover, but the inside is in good condition.  Published by the Charterhouse trustees in 1906, just 4 years after the trustees had their first meeting, it contains documents, and lists of documents, most of which are in the archives, but in a really useful form.
First there are the medieval charters and licenses, in translation but some of them with the original Latin as well.  They start with the License in mortmain of 3 August 1383 for the site of the Charterhouse.  Then comes the foundation deed of 1 March 1384.  The preface states: "The original of the following charter is preserved amongst the records in the custody of the Charterhouse Trustees, in the 9th drawer of the Charterhouse deed chest.  It is written on one skin of vellum.  The seal of Sir Michael De-La-Pole is appended by a plaited cord of red and purple silk.  Space has been left for an ornamental initial "O", which, however, has never been inserted.  On the back are endorsements recording its exhibition at Archiepiscopal visitations in 1567 and 1579, and a further endorsement recording its production before a Commission at Beverley in 1758, in a Chancery suit between the Hull Corporation and the Rev. John Clarke, the then Master of the Hospital.  There is a copy in Latin, made in 1572, amongst the Corporation records (B.B. iv. ff. 90-93), but its readings cannot always be trusted.  In a manuscript book of the time of Henry VIII, amongst the Charterhouse records, there is a translation into English of the entire deed, which translation is substantially identical with the versions printed in the histories of Hull by Hadley and Tickell.  There is an entirely independent translation in Mr. John Travis-Cook's History of the Charterhouse (pp. 29-39)."  

I have yet to discover what happened to the deed chest itself.  The first reference to such a chest comes in 1847, when two of them were bought by the Aldermen to store all the documents and deeds of the charity.
After the foundation deed comes the full text of the 1901 scheme of governance which set up the trustees and the rules under which the Charterhouse was to be run.  It's a long and very detailed text and there's a summary of it in an earlier post.
Then there's a list of all the properties which the charity owned at November 1901, with their current tenants, and the other sources of income.  There are farms and other pieces of land at Hessle, Willerby and Cottingham, and various properties in Hull; shops (including a public house and a malt kiln), warehouses and offices; and finally a list of investments.
The final section is a comprehensive list of all the records.  As well as those listed above, these are mostly conveyances.  We can glean some interesting details from the list, including the fact that the chalk quarry in Hessle, which only closed in the mid-20th century, was already in operation in 1337.
It's always worth checking ebay!

Bring up the bodies?

"It is known that several of the de la Poles sought burial in the Charterhouse (which effectively became the family’s northern mausoleum). Sir William de la Pole (died 1366) and his wife Katherine (died 1381) were buried beneath the high altar in the priory church and their son Michael, 1st Earl of Suffolk and his wife Katherine in the chancel."  So says John Cook, writing in 1882.  What happened to the graves of such an illustrious family?

The priory was closed in 1539.  Writing in the early 1540s, John Leland reported (in his Itineraries),"The Charter House of the De la Poles foundation, and an Hospital of their Foundation standing by it, is without the North Gate. The Hospital standeth. Certain of the De la Poles were buried in this Carthusian Monastery: and at the late suppressing of it were found divers troughs of Lead with Bones in a Vault under the High Altar there. Most part of this Monastery was builded with Brick, as the Residue of the Buildings of Hull for the most part be."  [spelling modernised]  The lead coffins indicate high status burials.  But what happened to these coffins?  No one knows.

Carthusians have always buried their own dead without coffins, usually in the cloister garth.  This is consistent with what was found in the early 19th century, when the land which once belonged to the Priory was developed into what is now Sykes Street.  On 3 June 1809 the Hull Advertiser reported that human skeletons had been found, oriented east - west, and that "masses of wall of immense thickness" were discovered when digging for the foundations of new houses.  The skeletons were no doubt those of the monks who had lived and died in the Priory.  But, like the aristocratic remains found many years before, they appear to have been discarded.  Archaeology had not yet developed as a science, and no plans were made of the site.  Perhaps before any future redevelopment of the area there will be an attempt to excavate it properly.

John Hailes, bellman

From the Bench Book, 1571

[In the margin] John hailes appointed to be bell man. & the annuitie he haithe of the hospitall to Sease.
Item the day and yeare abovesaid the said maior & aldermen did give and bestowe the office of the Bell man to John Hailes he to enter to yt at michelmas next. And that from thensfourthe the xls whiche he haithe yerely of benevolence paied him by the maister of the Hospitall shall be paied him no more for that the said office is thought to be a competent Lyvinge for him. (Transcription by Helen Good.)

John Hailes is the first named inmate of the Charterhouse in the records - perhaps.  The 1571 Bench Book is the first to mention the hospital at all, and doesn't call it the Charterhouse, probably because at that stage, only 32 years after the dissolution of the priory, the term was not routinely applied to the hospital.  We can be confident, however, that it's Michael de la Pole's foundation which is referred to.  The only rival at this time, the Trinity House almshouse, was not under the control of the Mayor and Aldermen.

This short paragraph presents us with several unanswered questions.  John Hailes has an annuity from the hospital; can we be sure that he is an inmate?  There was no provision in the founding document to pay an allowance to anyone who didn't have a room in the hospital, so we must assume that he is.  And that allowance was 40 shillings a year.  Presumably he had been awarded his place because he qualified as "aged poor".  Yet here he is being given a job which carried pay of at least 40s.  Did the withdrawal of his allowance also mean that he lost his room in the hospital?
What was a bellman?  (The clerk wrote the term, twice, as two words rather than one, but that seems irrelevant.)  It was unlikely to have been simply the task of ringing a bell to mark the time at the hospital for services.  That would not have carried a salary as large as the inmates' allowances, and it probably would not have required the endorsement of the Mayor and Aldermen.  There are two possibilities in this period.  A "bellman" could be either a town crier or a night watchman.  The second seems more likely.  As with all these questions we can't be sure, but for centuries the job of patrolling the streets of a town at night was given to elderly men.  In the days before police forces the watchmen would carry a bell (and later a whistle) to alert householders to trouble.  Was this John Hailes' new job?
Despite the questions, John Hailes has the honour of being the earliest named beneficiary of Michael de la Pole's foundation.

The founding charter

The founding document of the Hull Charterhouse

Translated by John Cook, 1882

To all and singular the faithful people of Christ, Michael de la Pole, knight, lord of Wyngefeld, wisheth eternal salvation in the Lord. Forasmuch as human frailty or power sufficeth not to worthily repay for all the benefits received from Him, the Lord who giveth liberally, yet He of grace permits to be returned to Him what he hath bestowed, so that human virtue cannot more fitly thank the Creator than by restoring to Him something of what He hath plentifully given, and bestowing in charity upon His members part of one’s earthly goods; and forasmuch as we bear in mind that our most dear and memorable lord and father, Sir William de la Pole, knight, lately, whilst he lived, moved of divine clemency, did purpose to found and establish near Kingston-upon-Hull, firstly a hospital for Minor priests, and poor people, then, altering subsequently his intention out of increased devoutness, a religious house for nuns or sisters, Minoresses Regular of the Order of St. Clare, and for certain poor people, but died before he could complete this his devout purpose; therefore, We, desiring to fully effectuate the same as in his lifetime he requested us, yet changing in part his plan, with the license of our lord Richard, King of England and France, and Edward, late King, and of all others whose consent, in this behalf is requisite, have founded and made near the said town of Kingston, in the place first ordained by our said father, a religious house for monks of the Carthusian Order, instead of the said nuns, or sisters, and have so endowed the same, that God willing, it shall endure throughout all ages: And we being willing, moreover, to establish there a number of poor people according to the first intention of our said father, have, to the honour of God, the most glorious Virgin Mary his mother, the blessed Michael the Archangel, all Archangels, and holy spirits, the blessed Thomas the Martyr, late Archbishop of Canterbury, and other holy ones of God, by the license and consent aforesaid, founded and built, and by these presents do found, make, and set up in two messuages of ours called the Maisondieu, in Miton, next the priory of the said Carthusian house on the east part, near the said town of Kingston-upon-Hull, containing an acre and a half of ground, a certain house or hospital for thirteen poor men and thirteen poor women, feeble or old; which house or hospital we will to be called God’s House of Hull, and, like the Carthusian house, to last forever: And we place, establish, constitute and ordain, in the said house or hospital, under the rules and limitations below written, thirteen poor men and thirteen poor women, brothers and sisters of the same house, so long as they are necessitous; over whom we make, and by the tenor of these presents appoint Sir Richard de Killum, priest, master and warden from now; Willing and decreeing that every person who shall become master there after him, shall also have taken priest’s orders, and be of the age of thirty years and more, and there continually keep personal residence, under obedience to whom the rest of the poor people as well brothers and sisters shall continue and be in perpetuity: That the said master have a dwelling by himself within or near the said house, and that by the prudence and discretion of the master for the time being, all things to be done both within and without, as well for ruling and increasing the possessions, as for directing and teaching the brothers and sisters, shall be regulated; which master immediately after that by us or our heirs, or in case of the negligence of us or our heirs by the several persons in the order hereinafter nominated, he has by our or their letters patent been appointed to the rule of the said hospital, shall, without any other admission or question of any ordinary, have the administration of all the goods of the said hospital, and them lawfully administer, distribute and control, according to the rules and regulations hereinafter written, and shall receive of the said house for the keeping up of his position, as well for food as clothing, £10 sterling every year at the terms of St. Michael, the Birth of Our Lord, Easter, and the nativity of St. John the Baptist; and when absent on the necessary business of the house he shall be allowed reasonable expenses for a moderate time; and he shall be bound to celebrate mass every day in one of the chapels of the said house, when thereto able, and not absent on arduous affairs of the house, or otherwise legitimately hindered, in which cases he shall provide at the expense of the house for the same to be celebrated during his absence by another proper chaplain: We also ordain that each one of the said poor people, as far as conveniently possible, have leisure to attend every day before dinner in the church for prayer and service, and after dinner resort to some honest occupation; and that the said poor people do, in all their prayers and services, specially recommend the state of our said lord King Richard and this kingdom, and our own state, and the state of our children, Michael, John, Thomas, William, Richard, Anne and Margaret, and of our brother Edmund de la Pole, knight, and of our sister Margaret de Nevill, and of Sir John de Waltham, clerk, and of Robert and John, and of all our benefactors, and of all others to whom we be bound, whilst we live: And that the said poor people do daily specially pray for the soul of our said lord King Richard, and for our own soul when we are departed this life, and for the souls of Sir William de la Pole, our father, Katherine, our mother, Katherine, our wife, Walter and Thomas, our brothers, Katherine and Blanche, our sisters, and also John, and John, and the souls of all faithful ones departed: And the said master shall pay to each one of the said poor people forty shillings annually for all their necessaries as well food as clothing, namely to every one of them 8d. per week, and the rest of the said forty shillings to each one yearly at the four terms aforesaid by equal portions: We enact also that on the master or any of the brothers or sisters dying or leaving or being removed from the house at any future time, we, during our life, and, after our death, our heirs, lords of the manor of Miton, if they be of full age, shall put another suitable person in the place of the one so dying, leaving or being removed: And if we, our heirs aforesaid, being negligent or slack in this matter, do in the future fail for one month after the decease, departure or removal of the master, or of any of the brothers or sisters aforesaid, to appoint or substitute another in his or her place, or if our heirs be under the age of 21 years, the prior for the time being of our Carthusian house of Kingston-upon-Hull within fifteen days after the lapse of such month, and after the lapse of those fifteen days the mayor for the time being of the town of Hull within other fifteen days thence immediately following, and, after the lapse, without the vacancy being supplied by any of the foregoing, then, within another fifteen days immediately following, the Archdeacon of the East Riding, in the church of York, or, in his absence, his officer, shall successively, each one in his proper turn, by his letter patent only without question of any ordinary or superior, or any further form or process of law, substitute and appoint suitable persons in the places of those so dead, departed or removed as aforesaid, against which appointment there shall be no appeal; yet all this shall be without prejudice to us or our heirs, when, on any future occasion, we shall not be negligent nor they negligent nor within age. And for securing proper care of things, the master of the said house shall every year, if it be needful, show the state of the house, and the receipts and expenses thereof, carefully computed calculated and accounted for upon his oath, before four of the maturer and more experienced persons of the said house, annually selected for such purpose by all the brethren and sisters of the said house, in the presence of some one by us or our heirs, or in the case our heirs are negligent or under age, by the prior, mayor or archdeacon aforesaid specially delegated for that duty; and if anything beyond the necessary expenses of the said house, and of the master, brethren and sisters aforesaid, shall remain in the hands of the master at the end of any year, such surplus shall be securely placed in the treasury of the said house for the general benefit of all the said brethren and sisters for use in any emergency. Provided that if the master be absent fifteen days from the said house or hospital and not upon its business, or shall not make payment to the said poor people as herein-before required, but, on the contrary, shall fail in making payment for three days after that he has been asked so to do by the said poor or any of them; or has openly violated that statutes of the said house or hospital, or committed any other grave fault, thereof being convicted upon the evidence of three or four of the brethren or other trustworthy persons; or otherwise be insufficient or incapable in the administration of the goods or government of the hospital, he may thereupon by us or our heirs, or in default of us or our heirs, or if our heirs be minors, then by the prior, mayor, and archdeacon aforesaid in order as above given them, be wholly removed from his said office and administration without need of any process in law; and let the same be observed amongst the said poor people offending in any way against our present ordinances, saving that the master for the time being shall always have the first right to punish or remove the poor people. We enact, moreover, that every master, brother and sister of the said house or hospital shall, on admission, make corporal oath to faithfully observe to the utmost of his or her ability these statutes and ordinances: We also ordain and provide that against the sudden necessities or unprosperous times that may happen, a chest be made and kept in the treasury of the said priory wherein we wish to be and have verily placed One hundred pounds of money, under the care and written acknowledgement of the said master, prior and mayor, for the common benefit of the said master and poor in any emergency; until when such sum may be lent out on sufficient security in the discretion of the said prior and mayor, but we ordain that whenever the principal shall come in, it shall be at once replaced in the said chest: We have given and granted, and with the license and consent of our said lord king Richard, and of all others whom it may concern, Do give and grant, and by these letters confirm unto the said master, brethren and sisters, the aforesaid messuages for their dwelling or foundation or endowment, and five other messuages with the appurtenances in the aforesaid town of Kyngeston-upon-Hull, and one messuage and four oxgangs of arable land, four acres of meadow, and ten acres of pasture, with their appurtenances, in Cotyngham, to have and to hold unto the said master, brethren and sisters, and their successors, of the chief lords of the fees by the services therefor due and accustomed for ever: And we, the aforesaid Michael and our heirs, will for ever warrant and defend unto the said master, brethren and sisters, the aforesaid messuages, land, meadow and pasture, with their appurtenances, against all people whomsoever: We especially reserve to ourselves and our heirs power to increase or lessen this ordinance, and to make any new ordinance as often as necessary for the better rule and greater stability or security of the said house or hospital: In witness whereof we have caused these our letters patent to be made, These being witnesses, the venerable prelate, Alexander, Archbishop of York, primate of England; Henry de Percy, earl of Northumberland; Thomas de Sutton, Robert de Hilton, Walter de Fauconbergh, knights; John de Demylton, mayor of the said town of Hull; Walter Frost, Robert de Selby, Robert del Cross, and others; Given at Hull on the first day of March in the seventh year of the reign of the said king Richard.

WHO FOUNDED THE CHARTERHOUSE?

There was a time when the name of William de la Pole was familiar to most Hull people. They knew that he was the first Mayor of Hull, if nothing else. A statue of him, a fanciful Victorian image of a medieval gentleman, stood in the old Town Hall. In September 1901 the building was due to be demolished, so the statue was moved to a spot on King Edward Street. The Hull Daily Mail reported the move, and quoted from the inscription on the base the “fact” that William was the founder of the Charterhouse. That sparked several letters pointing out that this was inaccurate; the founder was William’s son Michael. The letter-writers were correct; but there is some truth in that inscription.

There appears to have been an almshouse or hospital in Hull by the 1340s; a document in the National Archives dated 17 Edward III (1343-4) gives James de Kyngestone, the king's clerk, permission “to grant a messuage in Hull to the warden of God's House there”. Nothing else is known about this. When William de la Pole retired from active business he received a royal licence, in 1354, to found a hospital for poor people. Its income was to come from the rent of lands in Myton and properties in Hull. The hospital was apparently founded, but in 1365, the year before his death, William decided to change his plan. He wanted it to be a convent for nuns of the order of St. Clare. The change was not implemented. The source for this is the 1378 document drawn up by William's son Michael on his foundation of a Carthusian Priory.

Whilst we continually revolve in our Mind, how our most dear Father and Lord William de la Pole, Knight, (now deceased) whilst he lived, by the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit, first founded an Hospital for the Poor; and afterwards, out of greater Devotion, altering this, his Purpose, was resolved to erect at Kingston-upon-Hull, a certain Religious House of Nuns, or Poor Sisters Minoresses Regular, of the Order of St. Clare, for the Enlargement and Honour of the Church of England, and to the Intent that he might make Christ his Heir: And seeing our said Father left this World, when he had not yet completed what he intended to have endow'd; and having, before his Death, most strictly charg'd us, that we should take such Order concerning the said Building, as might tend both to its greater Security, and better promote the Ends of Piety, according to our own Will and Discretion.

This is already somewhat confusing. William founded a hospital then changed his mind, preferring a convent of Poor Clares, which he didn't live to see built. But was the hospital itself ever actually built? Michael decided that a Carthusian Priory was more to his taste than a convent, and it was to be “in one of our Messuages, without the Walls of the said Town of Kingston-upon-Hull”. He goes on to describe the exact situation.

...the said Messuage, with the Appurtenances, containing 7 Acres of Land, which formerly was a Parcel of the Manor of Myton, call'd La Maison Dieu, and which from this Time, we will should be called the House of St. Michael of the Order of Carthusians of Kingston-upon-Hull, as heretofore; together with a certain Chapel, built on the said Messuage; and all other Buildings standing thereupon, with all the Appurtenances whatsoever, as it is situated, within a certain Pitfall of Dame Katherine de la Pole, our most dear Mother towards the West; and a certain Hospital of ours, now called La Maison Dieu, facing the East; and a Trench of our aforesaid Mother towards the South; and the Land formerly belonging to Roger Swerde, towards the North.

So the Maison Dieu did exist; but Michael intended to replace it with a Priory. The implication is either that the hospital had never been occupied, or that it was to be closed. The founding document of Michael's own Maison Dieu, in 1384, makes the situation no clearer.

Sir William de la Pole, knight, lately, whilst he lived, moved of divine clemency, did purpose to found and establish near Kingston-upon-Hull, firstly a hospital for Minor priests, and poor people, then, altering subsequently his intention out of increased devoutness, a religious house for nuns or sisters, Minoresses Regular of the Order of St. Clare, and for certain poor people.

Yet he goes on to say that his new hospital will be “set up in two messuages of ours called the Maisondieu”.

We may never know. Michael de la Pole, 1^st Earl of Suffolk, rightly takes the credit for what we now call the Charterhouse, but the originator was his father William.