A. HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



HOUSE OF KNIGHTS HOSPITALLERS 



14. THE PRECEPTORY OF 

 OSSINGTON 



Roger de Buron, toward the close of his life, 

 in the latter half of the I2th century, gave the 

 town of Ossington to Lenton Priory, joining the 

 Cluniac order and wearing their habit. But 

 early in his life he had bestowed the same town 

 on the Knights Hospitallers, who held his 

 charter. This not unnaturally gave rise to con- 

 siderable litigation. His son, Walter Smaller,, in 

 1204 confirmed the original grant to the Hos- 

 pitallers. Eventually in 1208 the superior 

 claim of the Hospitallers was admitted by the 

 priory, with some slight modification. 1 Henry III 

 granted them free warren over their demesne 

 lands in Ossington. 2 



In a compendious chartulary of the possessions 

 of the order, drawn up in 1434, it is stated that 

 Archbishop William (probably William Fitz 

 Herbert, 1143-54) granted them the church of 

 Ossington with its appurtenances. The next 

 entry adds that one Henry Hosatus gave the 

 Nottinghamshire churches of Winkburn and 

 Averham to the order, and that Adam Tyson 

 gave the town of Winkburn. 3 



The gift of the two churches of Winkburn 

 and Averham must have been earlier than 1199, 

 for in that year they are included in a long general 

 confirmation to the Hospitallers, executed by 

 King John. 4 



Archbishop Gray confirmed to the brethren of 

 the Temple in England in 1230 their rights in 

 the churches of Marnham and Sibthorpe, with 

 their annual pension of 2s. from the first and of 

 2 marks from the other. 6 



A letter of recommendation of the Hospitallers 

 was issued by Archbishop Romayne in 1287 to 

 the Archdeacon of Nottingham, by him to be 

 forwarded to all the rectors, vicars, and priests of 

 his archdeaconry, urging that when the messen- 

 gers of the order arrived after their accustomed 

 manner, they should be admitted, heard with 

 kindness, and not hindered in any way whatso- 

 ever in expounding to their parishioners the 

 nature of the business on which they were sent. 6 



The jury of the wapentake of Bingham stated 

 in 1276 that the officials of both Templars and 

 Hospitallers had on many past occasions and up 

 to the present day treated the inhabitants unjustly 

 and extorted money from them. Other jurors of 



1 Thoroton, Notts, iii, 1723. 



* Dugdale, Man. (orig. ed.), ii, 552. 



3 Ibid. 546. 



4 Chart. R. I John, pt. i, 114. As to Winkburn 

 sec also Thoroton, Notts, iii, 1778. 



5 York Epis. Reg. Gray, fol. 35. 



6 Ibid. Romanus, fol. 71. 



the county at the same time certified that the Hos- 

 pitallers held the manors of Deyvilthorpe (Dane- 

 thorpe), Winkburn, Ossington, and 45. rent in 

 Willoughby, as well as free warren in Ossington, 

 Winkburn, and Danethorpe, and a park at Wink- 

 burn. The jurors of Newark testified that both 

 Templars and Hospitallers had made encroach- 

 ments on the waters of the Trent. 7 



At the time of the cruel suppression of the 

 Templars in 1312 there was an unseemly 

 scramble for the property of the order in England. 

 Edward II seized some for himself, and trans- 

 ferred not a little to his favourites. The strong 

 remonstrance of the pope against this seculariza- 

 tion of ecclesiastical property brought about an 

 Act of Parliament in 1324, by which the Hos- 

 pitallers were put into legal possession of that 

 which had previously been declared to be theirs 

 by papal decree. 8 Some, however, still remained 

 in lay hands. The Templars had comparatively 

 small estates in Nottinghamshire, but Hugh le 

 Despenser managed to retain Templars' lands at 

 Carlton worth 20 marks a year. 9 



In 1338, when Prior Philip de Thame made 

 a return to the Grand Master of the English 

 possessions of the Hospitallers, full particulars 

 were entered of the Bajulia de Ossington, as well 

 as of the smaller estate or camera of Winkburn, 

 with its member of Danethorpe, 10 which throw 

 much light on the working of these establish- 

 ments. 



The total receipts and profits of the precep- 

 tory of Ossington for that year amounted tx> 

 ,85 Ss. 8^. The capital messuage and garden 

 were valued at 1 6s. 8d. ; two dovecotes at 12s. j 

 600 acres of demesne land at bd. an acre, 15 j 

 32 acres of meadow, at 2s. an acre, and 6 acres 

 of pasture land, 2OJ. ; two windmills, 40*. j 

 labour and customary service of villeins, 791. 4^.; 

 rent in cocks and hens, 20J. ; court pleas and 

 perquisites, 40*. ; a messuage at ' Thurmeton,* 

 with 91 acres of land and 10 of pasture, 10 

 marks ; common pasture at Ossington for 12 

 cows and 600 sheep, 2s. a cow and id. a sheep, 

 741. ; assize rents, 24; confraria, not quite 

 accurately known, owing to the delay of certain 

 donors, but averaging in recent years 22 10;. ; 

 and the appropriation of the church of Ossington, 

 8 lo*. 



The outgoings for the support of the house- 

 hold, namely a preceptor, a brother, a chaplain, 

 two clerks de fraria and various servants, together 



1 Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), ii, 27-9 ; Plac. de Quo 

 War. (Rec. Com.), 655-6. 



8 Porter, Knights of Malta, i, 198-9. 



8 Larking, Knights Hospitallers in Engl. (CamJ. Soc. 

 1857), 212. 



10 Ibid. 54-6, 114-17. 





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