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St. Catherine's Hospital, Rochester was a leper hospital founded in 1315. By the end of the eighteenth century it had become an almshouse charity and moved to its present buildings at the top of Star Hill. In 1975 it merged with the Richard Watts Charity. ==Origin== In 1315 Symond Potyn left estates to fund the building of "a House with Appurtenances called the Spittell of St. Katherine of Rochester in the suburbe in Eastgate". It was intended for any "Man or Woman of the Cittee of Rouchester to be visited with Lepre or other such Diseasses that longe to Impotence". This is the leper hospital of which Richard Watts may have been thinking when he banned proctors from the Six Poor Travellers' house. The will laid down the equivalent of trustees; the Vicar of St. Nicholas, Potyn's heirs, John St. Denys and his heirs and finally the "Baylie of the same Cittee". Rules for the running of the hospital and the behaviour of the inhabitants were included. Amongst other things residents were not to "haunt the tavern or go to ale" which on the surface seems odd as Potyn was the Master of the Crown Inn. Phippen is quoted by Hinkley as remarking on the incongruity of this. Hinkley comments that perhaps as landlord Potyn had seen enough of the effects of such attendance. It is also possible that Potyn was mindful of the dread in which lepers were held and wished to keep them away from healthy customers. The hospital was duly built at the foot of Star Hill. By 1704 complaints about maladministration led to a commission of inquiry which sat at the Bull Inn. Apparently estates were being let for excessive periods at poor rates. An agreement was eventually reached which raised enough money for immediate repairs followed by a rebuild in 1717, some 400 years after the original founding. In 1752 Robert Bayley left money whose dividends were distributed amongst the residents. As with all of the following gifts, a separate charity existed, in this case ''Bayley's Gift'', from the time of the donation until all the St. Catherine's charities were amalgamated with the Richard Watts' Charity in 1977. In 1778 William Fruin likewise left money to be invested to provide an income to the almsfolk. This was ''Fruin's Gift''. 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「St. Catherine's Hospital, Rochester」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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