Plumptre Hospital

John de Plumptre, Mayor of Nottingham, founded Plumptre Hospital in 1392. It was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and supported two priests and "thirteen poor women broken down of age and depressed of poverty". It was endowed with 13 properties around the town. In 1414 the number of widows was reduced to seven and he gave the hospital his house, on the site that later became the Flying Horse Inn. In 1650, Huntingdon Plumptre renovated it, raised the rents, and gave the widows a proper allowance: five shillings per month (), with sixpence extra at New Year (). In the 1750s, another John Plumptre expanded the hospital so it could at last take the full 13 widows. They now received each…