| Description | Financial records of St Bartholomew's Hospital, 1547-1985, comprising Treasurers' ledgers, 1547-1764, including accounts for receipts and sales of goods from St Nicholas Shambles, the former parish of Greyfriars and expenses concerning the re-foundation of the Hospital, 1547, account of demolition of St Nicholas Shambles Church, 1551-1552, 'rentals' or receivers' accounts, 1551-1827, comprising property rent accounts arranged by street or county giving names of tenants, accounts of quit rents, annuities, 1551-1827, tithes, 1650-1715, tithe rate assessments for Christchurch, Newgate Street parish, 1551-1585, income accounts including legacies and gifts, poor's box, income from the Beams, Blackwell Hall and Bartholomew Fair, expenditure accounts including patients' diets, apothecary's expenses, dinners, salaries, payments for 'cures'; working copies of Treasurers' ledger accounts, 1621-1662 (not complete); working copies of 'rentals' or receivers' accounts of rents and annuities, 1624-1729 (not complete), including annual lists of unpaid rents, 1675-1729;
registers of legacies, 1547-1973, including extracts of wills, 1715-1973; benefactions, 1547-1902; rental of property burnt in the Great Fire of London, 1667; inventory of candles for use in the wards, [1670-1697]; memoranda of apprenticeship of child patients, 1628, 1641; audited accounts of arrears of receipts and payments and unpaid rents, 1652-1674; abstract of loss of income from property destroyed in the Great Fire, [1670]; Treasurers' cash books, 1642-1658, 1730-1748; general receipt books, 1731-1784, including receipts for expenditure on equipment, fuel, cleaning, water, baths, apothecary's drugs, payments to surgeons for operations, 1768-1777; Land tax receipt books, 1733-1749; salary accounts and receipt books, 1645-1729, with miscellaneous memoranda, 1557-1649, including inventories of hospital goods, 1557-1558, 1593-1597, and deaths, 1594-1597;
provision account books, 1725-1743, 1773-1784, recording bulk purchases of food and drink and allowances to the sisters and nurses, butler, beadles, labourers and patients; provision receipt books, 1721-1728, 1778-1784, recording bulk purchases of food and drink; renter's cash books, 1651-1655, 1792-1795; copies of, and extracts from wills and related documents concerning legacies to the Hospital, 1583-1759; papers relating to the executorship of the will of Edward Colson, 1736-1784 (proved 1763, the estate bequeathed to St Bartholomew's Hospital), including papers relating to his affairs during his lifetime, 1736-1762; Trusts register, 1843-1972, containing papers relating to the establishment of trust funds;
abstracts of general accounts, 1781-1828 (not complete); printed abstracts of general accounts, 1850-1904; general account books, 1828-1838, 1863-1901, including rentals, accounts for provisions, drugs, tradesmen's bills, salaries and wages, liveries; miscellaneous bills and vouchers, 1757-1898, including rent accounts, supplies; cash book, 1853-1858, giving details of Hospital receipts and expenditure; annual balance sheets, lists of investments and income and expenditure accounts, 1914-1926; balance sheet accounts ledgers, 1913-1948;
receipt ledgers for non-estate income, 1922-1948; receipt ledger for estate income, 1928-1942; impersonal ledger for estate expenditure, 1920-1944; statistics of comparative expenditure, 1905-1919, 1934-1938, including a comparison with other London teaching hospitals, 1911; papers concerning relative costs at St Bartholomew's and other hospitals, 1888-1938, including charts, tables and correspondence; auditors' reports on annual accounts, 1930-1939, noting increases or decreases from previous year's income and expenditure, 1930-1939; quarterly analyses of the general, estate and tithe accounts, 1939-1947; accounts of investment stocks bought and sold, [1902]-1948; register of donations, 1926-1948; registers of receipts, 1938-1948, for payments made by out-patients as a contribution to hospital expenses, 1938-1948; Bill books, 1909-1953, comprising a chronological record of invoices submitted; Area and District Treasurers' files, 1965-1985, including correspondence, meeting papers, reports and accounts; copy papers of the City and East London Area Health Authority concerning supplies, 1970-1974, comprising minutes of meetings, 1972-1973, reports, 1970-1974. |
| Administrative history | Until the establishment of the National Health Service in 1948 the income of St Bartholomew's Hospital was provided from private sources. The Treasurer was responsible for financial matters and managing the hospital's income. The main sources were rents from estates throughout England, donations and bequests from supporters of the hospital, income from the City of London and until the 19th century tithes from several parish churches. These records include details of rental income, as well as of bequests, donations, contributions from patients etc, as well as expenditure in the ledgers, receipt books and bills.
The tithes of the parish of Christ Church Greyfriars were received by St Bartholomew's until they were redeemed. The church was destroyed during the Second World War, and the parish became part of St Selpulchre outside Newgate.
In 1548 it was decreed that the income of the Beams and Blackwall Hall would provide the 500 marks endowed by Henry VIII to St Bartholomew's Hospital. Further details of the 500 marks endowment, and the subsequent dispute over its payment, can be found at SBHB/HA/99. |