Remembering the Cogan Hospital in Canterbury

 Remembering the Cogan Hospital in Canterbury

The reminiscences about the Hospital on the Historic Canterbury site give a fascinating insight into its work and history (see quote (1)), and show clearly how having to rely on bequests (money or the income from land left in a will) often put its finances under severe strain. 

The Aucher family ((2), (5), (6)), who we know from Otterden House and Aucher Villas (the new ‘handsome villa-like semi-detached houses on the London Road’, where Sarah Ann Vlieland lived from 1877 to 1902) were clearly important benefactors, but there were rarely enough funds to keep up the building itself, which was one reason for the move to London Road in 1870.

The Hospital was also left in a precarious position on John Cogan’s death in 1657 ((2)). Under the Puritan government following the execution of King Charles I in 1649, John had been in charge of sequestrating (forcibly repossessing) the lands of royalist gentry and clergy in East Kent. The estate in Littlebourn he bequeathed to endow the Hospital had belonged to the Archbishops of Canterbury, and when Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660, all such sequestered lands had to be returned to their former owners. Their income was lost to the Hospital, which remained badly under-funded until the Barling, Lovejoy and Aucher bequests ((2), (3), (4)).

It is hard to tell how much income was derived from the marshland bequeathed by Aucher and Barling ((3), (6)). If it was land reclaimed from the sea, it would have been very fertile pasture, but it could also be land from which salt was mined, barrelled up and sold for premium prices as a very precious commodity for preserving meat, even after the government tax on it was paid. Burmarsh, in the Aucher bequest, was a centre of the Roman trade, from where salt was exported all over the Empire.

The Masters’ bequest ((7)) in fact became worthless in 1720, on the collapse of  the South Sea Company in which she was invested – caught up in the ‘bubble’ in its shares caused by frenzied buying of stock when there was no realistic prospect of any profit being made. Her heir and executor, Sir Harcourt Masters, a Director of the Company, had already contested her will in 1718, maintaining it was unclear which Canterbury hospital she had intended to endow, but his estates were forfeited when the Company went down, and it was not until 1737 that any monies were paid out.

(1) ‘Cogan’s Hospital ... was founded in 1199 for six poor widows of clergymen; within the old buildings are the remains of a dwelling belonging to the Grey or Franciscan Friars, who were settled here in 1224 by Henry III.’

(2) ‘Mr. Cogan, of the city of Canterbury, gave by his will, dated July 27, 1657, his mansion house in St. Peter’s ... in trust to the mayor and corporation, for the habitation of six poor widows of clergymen  ..., and endowed it with the lands of the late archbishop ... in Littlebourn:* but these being resumed at the restoration, the house ... remained unendowed ... [I]n 1696, [this was] in some measure compensated by the benefaction of Dr. [John] Aucher, a prebendary [administrator] of ... [Canterbury] Cathedral, who invested an estate ... for the payment of ten pounds a year.’

(3) ’Mr. [Walter] Barling, by his will proved in 1670, devised one annuity or yearly rent of three pounds to be paid ... for ever, on September 1 yearly: one moiety [half] to the six poor widows inhabiting this house, and the other moiety towards the repair of the house ... to be paid out of his lands in Dering March [Marsh].’

(4) ‘Mrs. Elizabeth Lovejoy, by her will in 1694, ... gave out of her personal estate, four pounds per annum, to be paid to Cogan’s hospital.’

(5) ‘Dr. John Aucher, Prebendary of Canterbury, who died March 12, 1701, left an Estate of abt. 90£ a year for 6 poor widows of Clergymen in the Diocese. Each hath constantly 10 Guineas a year  and commonly 2 [guineas] more and sometimes [an allowance] of Coals.’

(6) ’Dr. Aucher’s deed is dated [1701]. The revenues consist of the rent of a messuage or farm-house, with 55 acres in Worde, and 32 acres of marsh land in Burmarsh and Eastchurch, in Romney Marsh.’

(7) ‘[T]he poor in Cogan’s hospital are entitled to receive from Mrs. [Mary] Masters’s legacy, who died in 1716, the sixth part of the interest due from one hundred and sixty-three pounds sixteen shillings and three pence, old South-sea annuities.’

Some words in the original quotations have been edited, shown in [], to make their meaning clearer.

* The modern village is known as Littlebourne.

The dates and sources for the quotations can be found on the Historic Canterbury site: http://machadoink.com/Cogan’s%20Hospital.htm; thanks are due to Tina Machado for permission to use them. 

Thanks Barbara !