The ſ (or long s) in St John’s Hoſpital, which looks like our modern f, died out in the decade before and after 1800 according to a wiki article on Long_s . The way fs were increasingly being written back then led to confusion and so ſ was replaced by s.
All of that is just an aſide to the main purpose of this blog post which is to point out that the entrance to St John’s Hoſpital, the almſhouses on the Vineyard, is being refaſhioned at present.
anyone know the history of this buidling??? what was st johns hosptial??
OK, so why is there a small “s” in John’s? There is a short reference on this page: http://www.ch-of-abingdon.org/almshouses.htm.
The Wikipedia article cited says that the long s was used at the start and in the middle of words, not at the end.
I believe it was also used where double s occurred. I have a grandfather clock on the dial of which the word Asstone is written with the first s as a long s
John S
See the British History Report for more about Abingdon’s Almshouses including St John’s
This is taken from a previous post in 2006… The hospital of St John stood outside the Abbey Gateway. It was the home of six poor persons fed and clothed by the abbey.
This site continued as an Almshouse after the dissolution of the Abbey in 1538, and was one of many responsibilities taken over by the new Borough of Abingdon in 1556.
The area next to the gateway became a centre of Corporate administration and the building was eventually taken over for the Borough’s own use.
St Johns almshouse in the Vineyard was built in its place in 1801. It is now owned and maintained by Christ’s Hospital as are all the Abingdon almshouses.
What a lovely job they are doing, lovely stonework, bricks as well.
thanks for the info, i love our local history
the fnished brckwork is a big improvement – the builders did a good job – looks great.