Dr. Steeven's Hospital Act 1729
DR. STEEVEN’S HOSPITAL ACT 1729 | ||
CHAP. XXIII. | ||
An Act for finishing and regulating the hospital founded by Richard Stephens esquire, doctor of Physick. | ||
Recital of devise by Dr. Richard Stevens to trustees after death of his sister, to erect and support an hospital for the sick and wounded, | ||
and by Esther Johnson to maintain a chaplain | ||
and by Alex. Montgomery to use of said hospital. | ||
Dr. Stephens sister desirous to see the charity take place, has applied part towards the said work, | ||
all the trustees dead, except Dr. John Sterne. | ||
To render it more effectual they are desirous that a corporation should be erected, | ||
executors of Esther Johnson consenting. | ||
a perpetual corporation erected for execution thereof. | ||
The members. | ||
WHEREAS Richard Stephens late of the city of Dublin, doctor of physick, deceased, did by his last will and testament give and devise all his real estate unto his sister Grizell Stephens for and during the term of her natural life, and after her decease did will and bequeath the same unto the right honourable Robert Rochfort esquire, lord chief baron of his Majesty’s court of Exchequer, the reverend doctor John Sterne, dean of Saint Patrick’s, William Griffith of the city of Dublin, doctor of physick, Thomas Proby and Henry Ashton of the city of Dublin esquires, their heirs and assigns for ever, to the uses, intents, and purposes, that his said trustees, and their heirs, and the survivor of them, should with all convenient speed after the death of his said sister out of the rents, issues, and profits of his said real estate so bequeathed to them build, or cause to be built, or otherwise provide, a proper place or building within the city of Dublin for an hospital for maintaining and curing from time to time such sick and wounded persons, whose distempers and wounds are curable; and after such place shall be so provided and fit for the reception of such sick and wounded persons, then that his said trustees, their heirs or assigns, or any three or more of them, should make laws, rules, and ordinances for the good government and order of the said hospital, and should appoint from time to time such governors or other proper officers and servants, as they should think fit; and after such hospital should be erected and provided, that his said trustees and their heirs, and the survivor of them, should apply the rents, issues, and profits of his said real estate for the support and maintenance of the said hospital, and for providing proper medicines, meat, and drink, and other necessaries, for such sick and wounded persons as should be brought into the said hospital, and for defraying the other necessary charges thereof: and whereas Esther Johnson of the city of Dublin spinster by her last will and testament, bearing date the thirtieth day of December one thousand seven hundred and twenty seven, did devise and direct, that the sum of one thousand pounds, part of her fortune, should be laid out by her ex-executors in purchasing lands in the provinces of Leinster, Munster, or Ulster; which lands, or the said one thousand pounds till the said lands should be purchased, were by the said will vested in the governors of the hospital founded by Richard Stephens doctor of physick, deceased, near Saint James’s-street, Dublin, and their successors for ever; in trust, that the said governors and their successors should pay the interest of the said one thousand pounds, or the rents of the said lands when purchased, half yearly to her mother and sister by even portions, and to the survivor of them during their lives, and after the decease of her mother and sister, that the interest of rents should be applied to the maintenance of a chaplain in the said hospital founded by doctor Richard Stephens, to be elected by the governors and other persons therein named, under the directions, rules, conditions, and restrictions, in the said will expressed and declared, and made and constituted the reverend doctor Thomas Sherridan of the city of Dublin, the reverend Mr. John Gratton, the reverend Mr. Francis Corbett, and John Rochfort esquire of the city of Dublin, her executors: and whereas colonel Alexander Montgomery lately deceased, did by his last will and testament bearing date the fourth day of July one thousand seven hundred and twenty seven give and devise unto John Montgomery esquire, and captain Alexander Auchinlecke, and their heirs, a field and right of commonage in Dolphin’s-barn, which he purchased from the executors of his father-in-law Henry Piercy esquire, to the use of the trustees of doctor Stephen’s hospital or infirmary for ever, and that the said John Montgomery and Alexander Auchinlecke, and their heirs, should convey the same to the trustees in doctor Stephens’s will for the use of the said charity: and whereas the said Grizell Stephens, after whose decease the said hospital is directed to be built by the will of the said doctor Richard Stephens her brother, is notwithstanding desirous out of regard to his memory, and in order to see this his great charity for the wounded and distempered sooner take place, that the hospital projected by her said brother’s will should with all convenient speed be erected; and she the said Grizell Stephens has for that purpose given and laid out a considerable part of the rents of her said brother’s real estate, which she was intitled to, towards erecting the same; by means whereof a great progress is already made in the said work: and whereas all the said trustees appointed by the said doctor Stephens’s will are dead, except the said doctor John Sterne, now the right reverend John lord bishop of Clogher, whereby the charitable intentions of the said doctor Richard Stephens may be rendered ineffectual, and in case of the death of the said bishop of Clogher, the said estate may deseend to minors, or other persons not capable of executing the trust reposed in them, or answering the end and design of the said testator, and the whole plan proposed by the said doctor Stephens may be thereby defeated: for the better carrying therefore into execution the said charitable scheme, the said Grizell Stephens and the said John Lord bishop of Clogher, surviving trustee in the said doctor Stephens’s will, are desirous that a corporation should be erected by act of Parliament effectually to answer the charitable intentions of the said doctor Stephens, and that the real estate of the said doctor Stephens devised to the trustees before mentioned, and their heirs, should be vested after the death of the said Grizell in the persons hereinafter mentioned, as a body corporate, upon the same trusts and to the like intents and puposes, and under the same rules and directions, as in and by the said will of the said doctor Richard Stephens are expressed and declared: and whereas the said doctor Thomas Sherridan, the reverend Mr. John Grattan, the reverend Mr. Francis Corbett, and the said John Rochfort esquire, executors of the said last will and testament of the said Esther Johnson, ars also willing and consenting, that the said sum of one thousand pounds, devised by her to be laid out for the purposes in the said will, should be also vested in the persons herein after named as a body corporate, under the same trusts, and under the like conditions, rules, and directions as in her said will are mentioned and contained; at the humble request therefore of the said Grizell Stephens, and of the said John lord bishop of Clogher, surviving trustee in the will of the said doctor Richard Stephens, and of the said doctor Thomas Sherridan, the said John Gratton, Francis Corbett, and John Rochfort, executors of the last will of the said Esther Johnson, may it please your most excellent Majesty that it may be enacted, and be it enacted by the King’s most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal and commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That from and after the twenty fifth day of April one thousand seven hundred and thirty there be and shall be a corporation to continue for ever for the excution of the said last will and testament of the said doctor Richard Stephens, so far forth as the same relates to the said hospital, so intended to be erected as aforesaid, and to answer the several intents and purposes therein contained, or herein after mentioned; which corporation shall consist of the several persons herein after named: (that is to say) his grace the lord primate of all Ireland for the time being, the right honourable the lord high chancellor of Ireland for the time being, his grace the lord archbishop of Dublin for the time being, John lord bishop of Clogher, the chancellor of his Majesty’s court of Exchequer for the time being, the lord chief justice of his Majesty’s court of King’s bench, the lord chief justice of his Majesty’s court of Common pleas, the lord chief baron of his Majesty’s court of Exchequer, all for the time being, the respective deans of Christ-church and Saint Patricks, Dublin, for the time being, the provost of Trinity-college near Dublin for the time being, the right honourable Frederick Hamilton esquire, the right honourable doctor Marmaduke Coghill, the right honourable Richard Tighe esquire, Sir William Fownes baronet, George Rochfort and John Rochfort of the city of Dublin esquires, Thomas Molyneux, Edward Worth, Richard Helsham, and Brian Robinson esquires, doctors of physick, Thomas Burgh, of the city of Dublin esquire, John Nicholls esquire, his Majesty’s chyrurgeon general of Ireland, and the chyrurgeon general of Ireland for the time being. |