A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 2. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1973.
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42. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. JAMES, LEWES
The hospital of St. James, outside the gates of the priory of Lewes, appears to have been founded by one of the Warennes as a kind of almshouse supplementary to the priory. In it thirteen poor persons, of either sex, were supported by the priory at a yearly cost of £16 10s., in return for which support they were bound to pray for the souls of the founder and his heirs. (fn. 1) Occasional mention of this house occurs in mediaeval wills, Agnes Thetcher in 1512 leaving a pair of linen sheets to 'the most needy person in the hospital of St. James. (fn. 2) With the fall of the priory the hospital lost its revenues, and Peter Tomson and other poor bedesmen of the hospital of St. James were driven to petition Cromwell for assistance. (fn. 3) Thus, though not actually suppressed, the hospital must have fallen into disuse soon after the dissolution of Lewes priory.