VIII.

ON AN ANCIENT DEED FROM THE MUNIMENT ROOM OF THE HOSPITAL OF THE HOLY TRINITY IN CROYDON.

BY JOHN WICKHAM FLOWER.

THE deed, of which a fac-simile accompanies this part of the Society's Proceedings, and of which a translation is appended, is preserved, together with other interesting documents relating to the Hospital, in the Munimentroom over the gatehouse.

Archbishop Whitgift (the founder) seems to have been more than usually careful for the safety of these muniments. In the statutes which he ordained for the government of the Hospital, we find the following direction: "Whereas, I have allotted owte a speciall roome in the gate howse next unto the streete for keepinge of the evidences of the lands and revenews of my sayde hospitall, and for other thinges of some momente, being not of dayly use: I doe ordeine that, in the same roome there shall be one other cheste, wherein shall be kepte the foundation and donation of the hospitall, and all other evidens whatsoever, well sorted accordinge to the severall parcells of landes, into severall greate boxes, superscribed wythe papers of direction." This injunction seems to have been carefully complied with by successive wardens, and the deeds and evidences are now found in the several "greate boxes" in which they were in all probability placed by the founder, or in his time.

This deed is the grant of a rent-charge of £6. 13s. 4d. per annum (twenty nobles), by Susan Barker, wife of Edward Barker, Esq., to the Warden and Poor of the Hospital, and it is interesting in an archæological point of view, not only as regards the parties to the grant, and the singularity of the motives which induced them to make it, but also on account of the elegant and artistic style in which the deed is prepared.

Susan Barker (the grantor) was the daughter of Richard Tracy of Stanway, by Barbara, daughter of that Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlcote, to whom some of Shakespeare's early troubles were, or at least are said to be, attributable. She thus descends from two families, the names of both of which are very familiar to the students of English history. Her husband Edward Barker was principal Registrar of the High Commission Court, a piece of preferment which probably he owed to the Archbishop, who, in his frequent dealings with recusants and papists, had much to do with that dreaded tribunal. Probably this grant to an establishment founded by the Archbishop himself, and in which he took so large an interest, may have been a graceful method of expressing the Registrar's obligations to his patron.

The motives which led to this benefaction, (that which lawyers term the consideration for it) are of a somewhat unusual kind :

After reciting that William Tracy, one of the donor's ancestors, had taken part in the murder of Thomas à Beckett, she states that not only out of esteem and respect for Archbishop Whitgift, but also in order that it might be openly made known, that the episcopal order was not at all hateful to her family, as some spiteful persons had reported, she was induced to grant the rent

charge in question. Probably she bore in mind the old Gloucestershire proverb, in which it was suggested that an avenging Nemesis pursued her ancestor's descendants on account of his crime:-" The Tracies have always, the wind in their faces ;" or, possibly, the lady, although a Protestant, may have been insensibly influenced by some lurking belief in the Papistical doctrines-that ancestral guilt needed atonement, and that the performance of good works was efficacious for that purpose; -and that thus a handsome donation to the hospital founded by one Archbishop, might, in some sort expiate the guilt of murdering one of his predecessors.

I am not aware that any other of William Tracy's descendants attempted to atone for their ancestor's crime by the endowment of any chantry, or other like foundation. It appears, however, from Canon Stanley's most able and interesting work, entitled "Historical Memorials of Canterbury," that Tracy himself gave certain lands in Morton to the church of Canterbury, for the health of his own soul, and those of his ancestors, and for the love of St. Thomas, Archbishop and Martyr of venerable memory, and that the rents of this estate were to be applied to feed and clothe daily, for ever, one monk, to celebrate the divine offices "pro salute vivorum et requie defunctorum." This deed was witnessed by the Abbot of St. Eufemia, in Calabria, which place was probably visited by Tracy on his way to the Holy Land, where he died. It also appears that Amicia, the widow of William Thaun, resigned to the treasurer of the cathedral of Exeter, on behalf of the church of Canterbury, certain lands which her husband had held under Tracy, and which he had made her swear she would duly assign to St. Thomas and the convent, but which, under the influence of her second husband, she had for some time