A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



HOUSE OF KNIGHTS TEMPLARS 



32. THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS OF 

 DUNWICH 



There was a house or preceptory of the 

 Knights Templars at Dunwich at an early date, 

 for King John, in the first year of his reign, con- 

 firmed to them their lands and other liberties at 

 Richdon in this town. 1 This confirmation was 

 strengthened by Henry III in 1227. 3 



In 1252 the bona Templiariorum de Donewico 

 were valued at in. a year. In early wills 

 their house was styled Templum beate Marie et 

 Jobannis, and it once occurs as Hospitale beate 

 Marie et S. Johannis vocat Le Tempi!. 3 



On the suppression of the order of the Tem- 

 plars in 13 1 2, their Dunwich property was 

 transferred to the Knights Hospitallers. In 

 1 31 3 John de Eggemere, who had been ap- 

 pointed ad interim keeper of the Templars' manor 

 of Dunwich, was ordered by the crown to pay 

 to the Bishop of Norwich the arrears of the 

 wages assigned to Robert de Spaunton and John 

 Coffyn, Templars assigned to him to put in cer- 

 tain monasteries to do penance, to wit \d. a day 



for each, and to continue to pay the same. 8 

 There can be no doubt from this entry on the 

 close rolls that Spaunton and Coffyn were two 

 of the Templars who had been attached to 

 the Dunwich preceptory. 



Weever, writing in 1 63 1, describes the church 

 of this establishment as having been a fine build- 

 ing, with a vaulted nave and lead-covered aisles. 

 The church held various indulgences and was a 

 place of much resort. It stood in Middlegate 

 Street, and about 55 rods from All Saints'. The 

 establishment possessed various houses, tenements, 

 and lands in the town and neighbourhood, and 

 their manor extended into Middleton and Wes- 

 tledon. The court of the lordship, called Dun- 

 wich Temple Court, was held on All Saints' 

 Day. The church, styled in wills ' the Tem- 

 ple of Our Lady in Dunwich,' remained in use 

 until the dissolution of the order of the Hos- 

 pitallers in 1540, when the revenues of the 

 Temple manor fell to the crown, and were 

 granted to Thomas Andrews in 1562, as parcel 

 of the possessions of the Preceptory of Battis- 

 ford. 9 



HOUSE OF KNIGHTS HOSPITALLERS 



33- 



THE PRECEPTORY OF BATTIS- 

 FORD 



There was a preceptory or hospital of the 

 Knights of St. John at Battisford at least as 

 early as the reign of Henry II, for that king gave 

 lands at Bergholt to the Hospitallers of Battis- 

 ford. 4 Henry III, in 1 27 1, granted these 

 knights a market, a fair, and free warren on 

 their lands at Battisford. 6 William de Bates- 

 ford gave them, in 1275, 40 acres of land and 6 

 of wood ; at the same time they had a grant from 

 Henry Kede of Battisford of a certain messuage 

 with the customary service pertaining thereto. 6 



Brother John de Accoumbe, preceptor of the 

 house of the hospital of Battisford, together with 

 two other brothers who were being sent by the 

 grand prior to Scotland on business of the order, 

 in April, 132 1, obtained a safe-conduct for two 

 years. 7 



That remarkable source of information as to 

 the knights hospitallers in England in the reign 

 of Edward II, namely the report of Prior Philip 



' Chart. R. I John, pt. i, m. 34. 



* Ibid. 2 Hen. Ill, pt. i, m. 29. 



3 Suckling, Hist. o/Suf. ii, 279. 



4 Dugdale, Mon. (1st edition), ii, 552. 



6 Chart. R. 56 Hen. Ill, m. 4. 



* Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), ii, 193. 



7 Pat. 14 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 16. 



de Thame, in 1338, to the Grand Master of the 

 whole order, is very explicit with regard to the 

 Suffolk preceptory. 10 



The bailiwick or preceptory of Battisford had 

 two members or ' camerae ' attached to it, 

 namely those of Coddenham and Mellis. The 

 total receipts for the year 1338 amounted to 

 £93 ioj. "]d. Half the church of Battisford 

 was appropriated to the hospitallers, and was 

 worth IO marks a year, whilst the rectory of 

 Badley produced £10 a year. 



By far the largest source of income was ' de 

 Fraria 11 ad voluntatem contribuentium] which 

 produced that year the large round sum of £50. 



There were messuages (houses) with gardens 

 at both Coddenham and Mellis, in each case 

 valued at 3;., with arable and other lands and 

 rents, and in the case of Coddenham a windmill ; 

 the total receipts of the former were ^Tio 51. Sd. 

 and of the latter £4. 31. id. 



8 Close, 7 Edw. II, m. 15. 



» Weever, Funeral Monuments, 719; Gardner, Hist. 

 of Dunwich, 54. 



10 Edited by Mr. Larking for the Camden Society 

 in 1857. The details as to Battisford occur on 

 pp. 84—6. 



11 The ' Confraria,' ' Fraria,' or « Collecta ' was the 

 regular annual collection for the needs of the order 

 made throughout the particular district assigned to a 

 preceptory (in this case, as in most, a whole county) 

 by authorized clerks. 



120 



