A priory of Augustinian canons founded by Rahere in 1123 in West Smithfield in Farringdon Ward Without (See Liber Bartilmew Cott. MS. Vesp. B. ix., being the Register book of the Priory referred to by Stow in his Survey of London).
The monastic buildings were extensive and covered a considerable area of ground, including the Hospital buildings and land which were under the jurisdiction of the Priory.
The monastery was possessed of large revenues and of numerous houses and rents in London and the suburbs.
It was restored and renewed about 1410, the cloister and chapter house having been rebuilt in 1409.
At the Dissolution of the Monasteries in temp.H. VIII. the site of the Priory, together with the close, were granted by H. VIII. to Sir Richard Riche, while the remains of the Priory church, were reconstructed to form a parish church to be called the parish church of St. Bartholomew the Great in Westsmythfelde, 1544 (L. and P. H. VIII. XIX. (1), p. 376).
The nave of the Priory church had been completely destroyed, and it was the choir and transepts of the Norman church that were converted into this parish church, forming the most beautiful and complete example existing in London of the architecture of that period.
The Hospital, which had always been annexed to and had been subject to the jurisdiction of the Priory, was granted in 1547 to the Mayor and Corporation of the City.
Among the many privileges conferred upon the Priors was that of holding a fair within the precincts of the Priory, known as Bartholomew Fair (q.v.).
For further particulars See separate articles:-
(St.) Bartholomew the Great.
(St.) Bartholomew the Less.
(St.) Bartholomew's Hospital.