Chapter VII: Appendix

ADDITIONAL NOTES BY JOSEPH ROBERTSON, LL.D.

LEPER HOSPITAL OF GLASGOW.

Sir James Simpson’s Paper, Part I. p. 10.—“In 1350, in the reign of David II., the Lady of Lochow, daughter of Robert, Duke of Albany, erected a leper hospital at the Gorbals of Glasgow, near the old bridge.—(Gibson’s _Hist. of Glasg._ p. 52; Cleland’s _Glasg._ vol. i. p. 68.)”

There is some mistake here. If the leper hospital was founded by the Lady of Lochow, daughter of the Duke of Albany, it must have been a hundred years after 1350. The dukedom of Albany was not created until 1378, and the first daughter of that house who married a Knight of Lochow was Marjory, the wife of Sir Duncan Campbell, who died in 1453.

The earliest record notice of the hospital which I have observed is in 1494, when William Steward, prebendary of Killern and rector of Glassfurd, endowed a chaplain to serve in the chapel of St. Ninian, which he had lately built, “_ad Hospitale Leprosorum degentium prope Pontem Glasguensem_.” He provided that yearly, on the anniversary of his death, twenty-four poor scholars should assemble in the chapel of the hospital to perform certain services, for which one penny was to be paid to each of them, along with one shilling to the lepers—“et leprosis non sociatis degentibus in dicto Hospitali xijd.” The lepers were to ring the chapel bell for the _Salve Regina_ every night, and to pray in the chapel for their benefactors.—(_Regist. Episcopal. Glasg._, vol. ii. pp. 488-490. Edinb. 1843, Mait. Club.) In 1505 we have “pauperibus leprosis in Leprosario Sancti Niniani trans pontem Glasguensem degentibus.”—(_Liber Collegii Nostre Domine Glasguensis_, p. 259. Glasg. 1846, Maitland Club.) In 1528, James Houston, sub-dean of Glasgow, founder of the Lady College (now the Tron Kirk) of Glasgow, ordered twelve pennies to be distributed yearly, on the anniversary of his death, to the lepers beside the Bridge of Glasgow, and others, who should appear in the churchyard of the Lady College to say orisons for his soul—“_leprosis extraneis et commorantibus juxta Pontem Glasguensem comparentibus in cimiterio prefecto Ecclesie Collegiate oraturis Deum_.”—(_Lib. Coll. Nostre Domine Glasguensis_, p. 51.) The Tron Kirk or Ladye College was on the north side of the Clyde, and within the burgh of Glasgow, so that we have here proof that lepers in 1528 were not forbidden to enter the burgh. Contrast this feeling towards them with the feeling shown in the Leges Burgorum and Statuta Gilde of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, printed in the _Acta Parliamentorum Scotiæ_, vol. i., and with the banishment of all lepers from Glasgow in 1593 and 1594, as instructed by the Kirk-Session Records, abridged in Wodrow’s _Biograph. Collect._, vol. ii. part ii. p. 41.

Did this difference of toleration arise from some corresponding difference in the intensity or general diffusion of the disease?

LEPER HOSPITAL AT STIRLING.

The existence of a leper-house at Stirling is proved by entries in the Rotuli Scaccarii Regum Scotorum, MS. in the General Register House.

1463-4. “Et leprosis prope burgum de Striuelin ex elimosina Domini
Regis percepientibus annuatim octo bollas farine—viij bolle
farine.”

Rot. Scacc., No. 251.

1466-7. “Et leprosis prope burgum de Striuelin ex elemosina Regis de
anno compoti—viij bolle farine.”

Rot. Scacc., No. 257.

1473-4. “Et leprosis prope burgum de Striuelyne ex elemosina Regis—iiij
celdre farine.”

Rot. Scacc., No. 266.

1497-9. “Et leprosis ad finem orientalem burgi de Striuelin
percepientibus annuatim octo bollas ex elemosina Regis de
dictis annis [7 Jul. 1497-10 Jul. 1499]—iiij celdre farrine
auenatice.”

Rot. Scacc., No. 314.

1499-1501. “Et leprosis ad finem orientalem burgi de
Striuelin—j celdra farrine auenatice.”

Rot. Scacc., No. 319.

1504-5. “Et leprosis de Striuelin in elimosina viij bolle
ordei—viij bolle farrine.”

Rot. Scacc., No. 329.

1505-6. “Allocatur compotanti in elimosina leprosis ad finem
burgi de Striuelin de termino compoti—viij bolle farrine
[auenatice].”

Rot. Scacc., No. 331.

1506-7. “In elimosina leprosis ad finem burgi de
Striueling—viij bolle farrine.”

Rot. Scacc., No. 333.

1511-12. “Et leprosis prope finem ville de Striueling in
elemosina de anno compoti—viij bolle ordei.”

Rot. Scacc., No. 347.

Observe how literally the situation of the leper-house, as described in the language of record “_ad finem burgi_,” answers to Henryson’s phrase—“yone hospitall _at the tounis end_.”

LEPER HOSPITAL OF ABERDEEN.

The leper hospital of Aberdeen was in existence before 1363. A charter of that year describes certain lands as bounded by the king’s highway leading from the burgh of Aberdeen _versus domos Leprosorum_; and again _a domibus dictorum Leprosorum_.—(_Registrum Episcopatus Aberdonensis_, vol. ii. p. 283.)

The use of the plural _domos_ and _domibus_ may possibly denote that there were two hospitals, as at Canterbury and elsewhere—one for men and one for women.

The Regent and the Privy Council interposed for the repair or restoration of the leper hospital of Aberdeen in 1574; in 1578 it was placed under the charge of a master; and in 1591 there were patients in it.—(_Selections from Ecclesiastical Records of Aberdeen_, pp. 20, 23. Aberd. 1846, Spald. Club.—_Extracts from the Burgh Records of Aberdeen_, 1570-1625, pp. 70, 71. Aberd. 1848, Spald. Club. _Book of Bon Accord_, p. 342.) There would seem to have been an outbreak of leprosy in Scotland about this time. It was in 1584 that the Magistrates of Edinburgh issued orders for finding a commodious place for a leper-house; in 1589 a leper-house was ordered to be built; and in 1591 there were five patients in it. (Sir James Simpson’s Paper, Part I. p. 11.) So also in Glasgow, in 1586 the Kirk-Session of Glasgow gave orders that “the Lepper Folk’s House or Spittal beyond the Bridge” should be visited, “to see how the same should be reformed.” These orders were renewed in 1587; in 1588 “the yard of the Lepper House” was built; and in 1589 six lepers are found in the Hospital. (Wodrow’s _Biographical Collections_, vol. ii. part ii. pp. 40, 41. Sir James Simpson’s Paper,