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.

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.

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.