An early record is of the establishment of a hospital, founded by Robert de Ros, Baron of Wark, before the year 1225, to support a master and three chaplains, thirteen leprous men, and other lay-brethren, dedicated to St. Thomas the Martyr, or the Holy Trinity; subordinate to the abbey of Ryeval, and the priory of Kirkham, in Yorkshire.

[1] de Ros richly endowed the hospital with the villa, lordship, impropriation, and advowson of Bolton, and a waste of 140 acres (0.57 km2); a corn-mill and a tenement at Mindrum; lands at Paston, and at Kilham.

He also gave it the villa, manor, impropriation, and advowson of Straunston, and his estates of the Pauntons within that lordship, near Grantham, in Lincolnshire; and also an estate at Elwell, in Swanesland, in Yorkshire, with pasturage for 300 sheep, near the river Humber; a corn-mill and a tenement at Middleton, near Dalton; and lands at Garton; both in the county of York.

[1] The master, chaplains, and brethren of the hospital, were to keep a good table, dress neatly, and provide themselves with proper necessaries and conveniences out of their annual revenues, and apply the remainder to the relief of the poor, and helpless strangers.

Bolton came next into the possession of the co-heiress of his late widow, Mrs. Forster, daughter of Nicholas Brown, Esq.