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CH.108
Both Chest and Hospital had similar constitutions although the precise administration and integrity
of the Chest was very often in doubt, the Chest ultimately being transferred to Greenwich in 1803
when in theory it became the Chest at Greenwich but in reality ceased to exist as an independent
fund altogether.
The similarities and differences between the Chest and Hospital are as follows. Hawkins' Hospital
was entirely a private charity although mainly governed by leading naval and dockyard men who
exercised discretion as to who was admitted as an almsman pre-1860 and in-pensioner or
out-pensioner after 1860. The beneficiaries of the Chest ultimately had an automatic right to relief
from that fund but both Chest and Hospital required personal visits to Chatham to make
application. Until 1860 Hawkins' Hospital was residential only; the Chest was non-residential and
always a branch of the navy.
The eligibility of candidates for relief by the Chest and Hospital varied from time to time but
broadly speaking eligibility applied equally to both. Possibly some successful Hawkins candidates
tended to be Chest rejects or more likely vice-versa.
Initially Hawkins' Hospital was open to seamen and shipwrights, the latter a higher level of
dockyard worker. Perhaps the inclusion of shipwrights was partly due to Hawkins' close
association with the Chatham yard, with Pett and Baker in particular and to Hawkins' memory of
his own multiple injuries sustained at the launch of Swiftsure at Deptford in 1592, when "we were
forced to use great violence upon the tackles, whereof one gave way and brake, so as one end of a
cable ran by my leg and hurt me in vi places" (Williamson 1949/pp324-325).
Shipwrights also benefited from the Chatham Chest and in 1704 Marines became eligible. More
recently, Hawkins' Hospital has also admitted other dockyard workers besides shipwrights. Most
of Hawkins' Hospital's shipwrights had worked at the Chatham or Sheerness yards, as the
application records show (/72-109). Hawkins' Hospital admitted wives of candidates and
maintained them as widows, but ejected them upon their remarrying.
The administration of the Chest Fund was located at Chatham until 1803 when it was transferred to
Greenwich Hospital, the actual chest, which had long been kept in the south porch of Chatham
Church (St. Mary's) following it to Greenwich in 1893 where it remains to this day. The demise
of the Chest had been brought about by a surge in claims following the Peace of Amiens in 1802
during the French Revolutionary Wars.
There are few records or references to the Chest in this collection as the two organisations were
separate, but there is a printed register of leases granted by the Chest c. 1794-1803 (/63) and an
incomplete lease of Chest land of 1799 (/64), the provenance of which is uncertain but is probably
associated with the activities of leading naval officers involved with the Hospital. However the
Dr. Plume legacy records in the collection impinge on the Chest 1707-1708 (/190-195) and a
separate collection held at this Centre comprises two so-called "smart tickets" or certificates for
relief to the Chest for the relief of two seamen 1802-1806 (DE.192).
The records of the Chest are kept at the Public Record Office in London (see below).
The Hospital Buildings
The original and successive buildings, structures, other premises, gardens and many details of
fabric and fixtures and fittings are recorded to varying degrees throughout the collection.
The main sources textually are the Governors' Minutes 1617 to date, loose accounts including
annual balance sheets noting extraordinary expenditure on repairs, maintenance and building work
1594-1987 (/l 13-189), the various series of title deeds and for visual material, the numerous plans
and architectural drawings (/268, 272, 298, 276A, 308, 329, 344-346, 348, 540, 544 and 545).
Besides the plans mentioned above, further architectural drawings are contained^ in the
Rochester-upon-Medway City Council Archives as noted below in the Section "further archival
pcl5/env/john-haw.sd (nf/msm)