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The Hospital of St Lawrence, variously known as St Lawrence's Hospital, the Hospice of St Lawrence and the free Chapel and Hospice of St Lawrence and St James, was a medieval house for lepers outside the town of Nantwich, Cheshire, England. It was located to the west of the town, on what is now Welsh Row, within the parish of Acton. St Lawrence's later became a hospital for the infirm poor. Dissolved in 1548, the hospital's land and property was purchased by the Wright family. One of its buildings was subsequently used for dwellings. ==History== Few records of the Hospital of St Lawrence remain, and its founder and date of foundation are unknown. It was originally a lazar house or house for lepers, who were not permitted to enter the town.〔Hall, pp. 53–54〕〔Garton 1983, p. 13〕〔 The Hospital of St Lawrence was one of two medieval hospitals in or near Nantwich, the other being the Hospital of St Nicholas at the east of the town. Founded in 1083–84 at the end of Hospital Street to provide for the needs of travellers, it gave the modern street its name.〔Garton 1972, pp. 6–9〕〔Hall, pp. 48–53〕 The Hospital of St Lawrence is known to have been situated around ½ mile west of the bridge over the River Weaver, well outside the medieval town of Nantwich and then within the adjacent parish of Acton.〔〔 It stood on a road leading from the town bridge to Lawrence Well, now Welsh Row.〔 Joseph Partridge, author of the first history of Nantwich published in 1774, associated the hospital with an area then occupied by a malthouse (now demolished) adjacent to the former Wilbraham's Almshouses, and it is traditionally considered to have been located on or near the site of the Tollemache Almshouses.〔〔Lamberton & Gray, p. 12〕 However, little or no direct evidence survives as to its precise location.〔 Partridge also states that a priory once existed close to the hospital; no other evidence for such a foundation now survives.〔〔 Medieval treatment for leprosy involved cleanliness and washing in healing springs, and St Lawrence's was presumably at or near the brine spring known as Lawrence Well.〔 By the late 14th century, leprosy was in decline in Cheshire; in around 1348, at the time of an outbreak of Black Death in the county, St Lawrence's became a hospital for the infirm poor.〔 The first record of the hospital is shortly afterwards in 1354–5, which states: Local historian Eric Garton considers that the long interruption of services and apparent lack of an incumbent chaplain suggest that the previous chaplain had been a victim of the Black Death.〔 The 1354–5 document is interpreted by local historian James Hall as stating that Combermere Abbey claimed ownership of St Lawrence's, and Hall believes that a document of 1498–9 confirms this claimed ownership.〔 Garton considers, however, that this claim is difficult to reconcile with the institution being described as a free Chapel, which would not have been under the jurisdiction of any parent church or abbey.〔 The 1498–9 document also contains the earliest recorded name of a chaplain, one John ffowler.〔 The right to appoint the hospital's chaplain, or the advowson, had been acquired in part by the Lovell family some time before 1485;〔〔〔Garton, 1972, p. 55〕 they had also owned the advowson of the Hospital of St Nicholas from around 1350.〔Hall, pp. 48–51〕 It is unknown who was originally responsible for appointing the chaplain.〔 The advowson subsequently passed to the Crown.〔 In 1525, the chaplain was a Doctor Incent.〔 At this date, the hospital's income was described: In 1536, just over a decade before its dissolution, the hospital's income was still estimated at £4.〔Garton, 1972, p. 63〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Hospital of St Lawrence, Acton」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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