Sept. 2. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



m 



LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER St, 1854. 



THE ENGLISH, IBISH, AND SCOTCH KNIGHTS OF THE 

 ORDER OF ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM. 



{Continued from Vol. viii., p. 193.) 



By the kind assistance of a literary friend at 

 this island, J. J. W., known to your readers as 

 John o' the Ford, and gleanings from the lletjdi'd 

 Office, I have been enabled to write the following 

 notices of some Knights of St. John who were 

 mentioned in my previous list. If your corre- 

 spondents could favour me with any information 

 respecting the members of the Order, whom I 

 named in " N. & Q.," Vol. viii., pp. 189. 193., I 

 should feel much obliged. 



Babington, John, Commander of Dalby and 

 Rothely, Bailiff of Aquila, and Grand Prior of 

 England. He was the second son of Thomas Ba- 

 bington of Dethic, in the co. of Derby, and of 

 Editha, daughter of Ralph Fitz-Herbert, of Nor- 

 bury, in the same county. He died about 1535. 



Babington, Philip, third son of John Babington, 

 of Ottery, St. Mary's, in the co. of Devon, by 



Elizabeth his wife, daughter of Holcombe of 



Branscombe, in the same county. About 1460 

 another knight of the family of Babington was at 

 the head of the English language. In a letter 

 written by an English brother, dated " Temple of 

 Sion in England," he is called " Master Thomas 

 Babington, Master and Sovereign of our Order." 

 Vide Paston's Letters, vol. iii. p. 418. 



Bellingham, Edward, second son of Edward 

 Bellingham, of Erringham, co. of Sussex, and of 

 Jane his wife, daughter of John Shelley of Mi- 

 chaelgrove, in the same county, was one of the 

 three commanders appointed to inquire into the 

 conduct of the Turcopolier, Clement West (the 

 other two being Aurelis Bottigella, of the Italian 

 language, and Baptiste Villaragut, of the lan- 

 guage of Arragon), he being at the time locum 

 tenens of the dignity of Turcopolier, a rank in the 

 Order which he afterwards obtained. In 1547 he 

 ■was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland, where 

 " he proceeded against the Irishry, in a martial 

 course, by beating and breaking the Moores and 

 Connors, two rebellious septs." He also surprised 

 and made prisoner the Earl of Desmond. He 

 T?as recalled after two years to answer some 

 charges preferred against him by his enemies at 

 court, " but he cleared himself as fast as his ad- 

 versaries charged him, recovering the king's fa- 

 vour in so high a degree, that he had been sent 

 back deputy again, save that he excused himself 

 by indisposition of body, and died not long after." 

 Vide Harl. and Cott. MSS. ; Sir John Davis's 

 Discourse of Ireland, p. 69.; Holingshed, and 

 Fuller, vol. iii. pp. 306, 307. 



Broke, Richard, was second son of Thomas 

 Broke, of Leighton, in the co. of Cheshire. Re- 

 turning to England he purchased the Abbey and 

 Manor of Norton, in Cheshire, from the king in 

 1545, and served as sheriff for that county, 

 A.D. 1563. Retiring from the Order of St. John, 

 he married a daughter of John Carew, of Hac- 

 combe, in Devonshire, and founded the extant 

 family of Broke of Norton, created baronets 

 Dec. 12th, A.D. 1662. Sir Richard died in 1569. 

 Vide Playfair, Baronet., Fuller, and Kimber, 

 Baronet., vol. ii. p. 277. 



Buck, John, said to be of the family of Haneby 

 Grange, in the county of Lincoln, was Turcopo- 

 lier at the famous siege of Rhodes, A. d. 1522. 

 Serving as one of the commanders of quarters, he 

 was slain at the third and most desperate attack 

 on the bastion of England. Vide Vertot's and 

 Bosio's Histories of the Order. 



Cave, Ambrose, was the fourth son of Richard 

 Cave, of Stamford, co. of Northampton, by his 

 wife Margaret, daughter of John Saxby in the 

 same county. He served as sheriff and M.P. for 

 Warwickshire, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lan- 

 caster, and one of the Queen's privy council. Sir 

 Ambrose was buried in Stamford Church. Vide 

 Kimber's Baronet., vol. i. p. 358. 



Dingley, Thomas, son of John Dingley, Esq., 

 and Mabel, daughter of Edmund Weston, of 

 Boston, CO. Lincoln, sister of Sir William Weston, 

 Grand Prior of England. There was a complaint 

 made against Thomas Dingley for improperly 

 holding the commandery of Schingey. An original 

 letter from the Grand Prior Weston to his ne- 

 phew Sir Thomas Dingley now exists in the Cott. 

 MSS., Otho, c. ix., fol. 96. Vide also Harl. MSS., 

 1561. 



Docra, Thomas, or Docura, second son of Ri- 

 chard Docra, of Bradsville, in the county of York, 

 and his wife Alice, daughter of Thomas Greene, 

 of Gressingham, in the same co., was Grand Prior 

 of England, a.d. 1504. He was much distinguished 

 as a diplomatist, having represented the Order at 

 most of the Courts of Europe. It is said that 

 L'Isle Adam gained his election to the Grand 

 Mastership by a majority of only three votes over 

 Sir Thomas Docra, his near relative. Vide Harl. 

 MSS., 1386, 1504; Vertot, and Sutherland's 

 Knights of Malta, vol. ii. p. 40. 



Docra, Lancelot, second son of Robert Docra, 6f 

 Docra Hall, Westmoreland, and his wife Janettaj 

 daughter of Sir John Lamplugh, of Lamplugh in 

 Cumberland, was a Knight of St. John at the 

 same period as the preceding. These two distin- 

 guished kinsmen were buried in the Priory (" in 

 prioratu Sancti Johannis Jerusalem "). Vide 

 Harl. MSS., 1534. W. W. 



La Valetta, Malta. 



{To he contintted.) 



