Alkmonton was originally founded as a hospital for female lepers in the 1100's by Robert de Bakepuze, of Barton Blount (then called Barton Bakepuze). The hospital was refounded in 1406 by Dame Sancha de Ayala, widow of Sir William Blount, who purchased the Derbyshire estates after the death of the last male heir of the Bakepuze family. Dame Sancha de Ayala further endowed the hospital with a chaplain who was to pray for the souls of herself and her family. The hospital was apparently refounded yet again in 1474 by Walter Blount, Lord Mountjoy, great-grandson of Sir Walter Blount, but it is unclear whether women continued to be either patients or attendants there.
It was a dependency of the male monastery, Newminster Abbey, for a time.
Ashm. MS. vol. 846, fol. 19; Cler. Subs. 1/7 5/3; Chant. Cert. 13, No. 14; Partics. for Sale, P.R.O. vol. 1, fol. 89.
2:80-81 available online at ">http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=40131&strquery=alkmon... [Victoria County History] 6:758
In 1474, the will of Sir Walter Blount, Lord Mountjoy, great-grandson of Sir Walter Blount, directed that the hospital and its land be given to the nearby hospital of St. Leonard. From this point on the hospital was to take on seven male pensioners. St. Leonard's was eventually dissolved during the reign of Edward I.
