Rentals

The annual rentals in general detail the property by parish or street within the city with a record of tenants and rent payments (the rolls for 1444 and 1445 merely give total receipts). They also frequently note outgoing payments (husgabel, annual payments to religious houses, chantries, for the maintenance of lights etc.), decays of property and repair expenditure, the fees of the chaplains, and payments to the poor and for bread, wine and wax in the chapel. From 1500 onwards a 'top-copy' of the rental was entered in the main series of account rolls. Thereafter many of these rentals have the appearance of a 'working-copy', often annotated with calculations. With three exceptions (rolls 1, 13 and 16), all the surviving 15th-century rentals are written on parchment; paper is used from 1524 to 1550 and once again from 1581, while parchment is found from 1554 until 1580. Latin is the language of these rentals until 1528 (again with the solitary exception of 1482).
The heading of these rolls indicates the close connection between the hospital and the fraternity and the mercers. The first five rolls (excluding the fragment) are in the name of the master of the hospital; thereafter, except for 1491 and 1496, the rental heading records the name of the master of the guild and fraternity (later the governor) and frequently in the early years the two constables.
Photocopies available for nos. 1-54.

(2-4 are account rolls of the time of John Fox, master of the Hospital (admitted 1438/9) and are labelled his fourth, sixth and seventh rolls respectively)

Rolls from 4/1/8 [hereafter copies of the rented and related expenses are entered on the main series of account rolls.]