Mar. 17. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



201 



on the ground, that if he deserved condemnation 

 he ought to be deprived of his habit, and even to be 

 put to death. Having said this, he sallied forth 

 with his drawn sword, and proceeded to the Au- 

 berge of England, to the scandal of all who saw 

 him. In consequence, on the 25th day of Fe- 

 bruary, 1532, he was deprived of his habit and of 

 the dignity of Turcopolier. 



On the receipt of this news in England, the 

 Knight John Sutton was despatched by the Duke 

 of Norfolk, and by the Prior of that kingdom, 

 begging the Grand Master would be pleased to 

 reinstate Clement West, and restore to him his 

 habit. This envoy presented himself in the council 

 held on the 23rd of February, 1533, and delivered 

 the letters of the above-named lords, from which it 

 appeared that in Great Britain the origin of this 

 affair was mostly attributed to a bad feeling 

 against West, originating from his having worn 

 some decoration appertaining to the King of 

 England. 



The Knights of the council being greatly sur- 

 prised at this calumny, the Grand Master deputed 

 a special commission to inquire into the business ; 

 and in an address to the council expressed the 

 high esteem which he entertained for Henry VIII., 

 "whom (in these calamitous times) he considered 

 as one of those Christian princes who were the 

 special protectors of the Order. 



The report of the commissioners cannot be found 

 recorded; but it is however positive, that on the 

 26th April, 1533, the council reinstated Clement 

 West in his former dignity of Turcopolier, he 

 having (as is expressed in the decree) shown signs 

 of repentance. 



The subsequent conduct of this Knight appears 

 to have given rise to farther complaints, for on the 

 10th September, 1537, he was placed under arrest 

 for acts of disobedience, and also for having en- 

 deavoured to provoke a duel in the preceding 

 general chapter. 



On the 3rd of September, 1539, at the instance 

 of the Knights of the Language of England, 

 Clement West was a second time deprived of his 

 habit, and of the dignity of Turcopolier.* 



Westo7i, William, second son of Edmund Wes- 

 ton, of Boston, Lincolnshire, and his wife Catherine, 

 daughter and heiress of John Camell, of Skapwick, 

 in the county of Dorset. He was one of the most 

 celebrated Knights of his age, and commanded 

 the English defences at the siege of Rhodes, in 

 1480. f Sir William was not the first of his family 



* The above notice of this overbearing, unpopular, and 

 quarrelsome commander is literalh^ translated from some 

 manuscript documents now in the Record Office. But it 

 may be stated that Otho, C. IX., contains the whole pro- 

 cess against the Turcopolier, Clement West, with original 

 letters which passed on the subject ; as well as much in- 

 teresting information connected with the Order ou other 

 matters. 



t Harl. MS. 1561. 



who had worn the habit of the Hospitallers. His 

 father's two brothers, John and William, were 

 both Knights of St. John — the former having 

 been Lord Prior of England, and general of the 

 galleys, a. d. 1470.* " Sir William Weston was 

 buried in the chancel of the old church of Saint 

 James, Clerkenwell, where an altar-tomb in the 

 architectural style of the age was erected over his 

 remains. He wns represented on it by an emaci- 

 ated figure lying upon a winding-sheet; and in 

 1798, when circumstances occasioned the grave to 

 be opened, his mouldering remains were found in 

 a state not unlike the figure upon the tomb "f 



Wise, Andrew, represented the English Lan- 

 guage in a general chapter held in 1603, and for a 

 number of years before that period was nominally 

 Grand Prior of England. J 



Before bringing this note to a conclusion, it 

 may be permitted to state that the manuscript 

 history of the Order, certainly not written with an 

 English pen, proves the British Knights to have 

 been a brave, a gallant, and honourable race of 

 men, alike distinguished in their naval and military 

 exploits, whether performed at sea or on shore, in 

 a general fight or personal conflict. It will not 

 be denied that instances did occur where a tem- 

 porary disgrace was brought on the Language by 

 the unjustifiable conduct of some of its members ; 

 but they were very rare, only three or four ex- 

 amples being noted in the English records which 

 have been carefully consulted, embracing, as they 

 do, a period of as many hundred years. Thus 

 much cannot be written of the Italian, French, 

 German, and Spanish brethren with whom they 

 were associated ; pages might be filled with their 

 delinquencies and crimes. In making this state- 

 ment, it should however injustice be remembered, 

 what a large number of persons — many, very many 

 thousands — were connected with the Order of St. 

 John of Jerusalem, during its existence of seven 

 centuries, in its growth, its glory, and decay. 



W.W. 



Malta. 



'THOMSON THE POEt's HOUSE AND CELLAK. 



None of the biographers of Thomson seem to 

 have fallen in with "a copy of the catalogue of his 

 efiects, disposed of by auction after his death in 

 1749. Thomson's residence for several years pre- 

 ceding his death was a snug cottage in Kewfoot 

 Lane, near Richmond. The situation is one of 

 the finest in that fine district. The cottage was 



* Boisgelin's History of Malta. 



t Sutherland's Knights of Malta, vol. ii. p. 115. 5 Mal- 

 colm's Londonium Redivivum; Bravley's Londoniana, 

 vol. i. ; " N. & Q.," Vol. vii., pp. 628, 629. 



t For farther notice of this Knight, vide " N. & Q.," 

 Vol. viii., p. 192. 



