RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



1 29 1 he is said to have had a portion out of the 

 church of Knighton.* 



The preceptory was founded some time be- 

 tween then and the year 1338, when full 

 particulars of the bailiwick of Mayne are given in 

 the return made of the possessions of the Hos- 

 pitallers of England to the Grand Master of the 

 Order by Philip de Thame, provincial prior of 

 England. The ' bajulia de Maine ' with its 

 members Knighton and Waye was valued at 

 144 marks, 2s. lod. ;° the outgoings amounted 

 to 63 marks 5^- 4<^-> ^nd included ordinary ex- 

 penses of the household with the exercise of 

 hospitality, a duty much enjoined on all members 

 of the order — _^8 14?.; a life-corrody to Sir Robert 

 de Norfolk at the table of the brethren, a robe 

 and his necessaries, 271. ; the kitchen, £"] 16s. ; 

 the brewing of the beer, ^^5 145. id. ; robes, 

 mantles, and other necessaries for the preceptor 

 and his brother knight, 69;. ^.d. ; for the squire 

 and others of the household, 50J. ; the chaplain's 

 stipend for celebrating in the chapel was 20s. ; 

 the cost of entertaining the prior for three 

 days on his annual visit came to bos. An annual 

 pension of £2 6s. Sd. was paid to the vicar of 

 Stinsford,' and small payments of 6s. and Js. to 

 the rector of Warmwell and the prior of Holme 

 respectively. The household consisted at that 

 time of the preceptor, brother John Larcher, 

 junior ; Richard Bernard, his brother knight ; and 

 Sir Robert de Norfolk, the corrody-man or 

 boarder ' in the place of a knight,' besides squire 

 and servants.' The balance to be paid into the 

 treasury after all expenses had been met amounted 

 to 79 marks lOs. lod. The house was not 

 reported in a very good state, for the court at 

 Mayne was ' badly built,' the house in ruins : 

 * burnt by misfortune,' so that the whole return 

 of the bailiwick for one year would hardly suffice 

 to repair the buildings, and owing to these un- 



* Pofe Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 1 79. The first 

 presentation to the rectory of West Knighton was made 

 in 1304 (Hutchins, 7^///. of Doiset, ii, 504). Stinsford 

 church is not mentioned in the Taxation of 1 291, 

 but is given as appropriated to the preceptory and 

 worth 18 marks in the return made by the provincial 

 prior of England in 1338 (Larking, Knights Hospitallers 

 in England [Camd. Soc], 11); the first presentation to 

 the vicarage is recorded in 13 19 (Hutchins, Hist, of 

 Dorset, ii, 569). 



' At Mayne besides dovecot and water-mill there 

 were 340 acres of land, 15J acres of meadow and 

 pasture for 12 oxen, 12 cows, and 500 sheep; at 

 Knighton, a messuage and garden, 68 acres of land, 

 \\ acres of meadow, and pasture for 6 oxen, 8 cows, 

 and 100 sheep ; at Waye a messuage with garden, 10 

 acres of meadow, 160 acres of land, and pasture for 

 6 oxen, 8 cows, and 100 sheep ; Larking, Knights 

 Hospitallers in England (Camd. Soc), lo-l I. 



* This payment was made up to 1535, and is given 

 in the Valor Eccl. of that year ; op. cit. (Rec. Com.), 

 i, 262. 



' Larking, Knights Hospitallers in England (Camd. 

 Soc), lO-II. 



fortunate circumstances that voluntary contri- 

 bution to their funds by the neighbourhood, on 

 which every preceptory relied for a large fraction 

 of its income, could hardly be expected to reach 

 the average of 36 marks.* 



The establishment at Mayne previous to the 

 Dissolution seems to have become incorporated 

 with or united to the larger and more flourishing 

 preceptory of Baddesley or Godsfield in Hamp- 

 shire. In 1523 brother William Weston paid 

 ;^38 17J. I (^. for the commandery of Baddesley 

 and Mayne into the treasury or capital fund of 

 the order for the year ending at the feast of St. 

 John the Baptist,^ and in 1533 the prior and 

 hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, by an indenture 

 dated 27 June, leased to John Gerard of Tincle- 

 ton the capital messuage or mansion of their 

 manor of Friar Mayne with the tithes of the 

 chapel and a warren of coneys in Lewell or East 

 Stafford for a term of twenty-one years. ^'^ The 

 preceptory, therefore, in all but the name, seems to 

 have sunk to the position of a ' camera ' or estate 

 maintaining no community and farmed out for 

 the benefit of the society. 



In the Valor of 1 535 all receipts and payments, 

 with the exception of the rectory of West 

 Knighton, are made out jointly in the name of 

 the commandery or preceptory of Baddesley or 

 Mayne ; the receipts were 20J. %d. from the 

 aforesaid rectory,^' i^d. out of the rectory of 

 Langton Matravers and Worth," and 55. in tithes 

 out of West Chaldon ; " the vicar of Stinsford 

 received a stipend of £2. 6s. 8d. as in the return 

 of 1338.1* 



At the Dissolution the property of the Knights 

 Hospitallers was by Act of Parliament vested in 

 the crown, and the manor and premises here in 

 reversion of the afore-mentioned lease were 

 granted by Edward VI to William Dennys for 

 twenty-one years." On the re-establishment of 

 the order under Philip and Mary they were re- 

 stored in 1558 to Thomas Tresham, Grand Pre- 

 ceptor of St. John of Jerusalem,'^ but the advent 



» Ibid. 



' Hutchins, quoting from the records of the 

 Knights Hospitallers at Malta, says that in 153 1 Roger 

 Boydell, preceptor of Baddesley and Mayne, paid by 

 the hand of Francis Balyard j^44 12/. id. into the 

 treasury and the same in 1532. In 1533-4 Thomas 

 Dingley paid ^44 12s. id. for Baddesley and Mayne 

 for half a year, and he owed the same sum for 1535. 

 Hist, of Dorset, ii, 501. '" Ibid. 499. 



" Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 244. '» Ibid. 



1' Ibid. 239. " Ibid. 262. " Pat. 5 Edw. VI. 



" Pat. 4 & 5 Phil, and Mary, pt. 14. This 

 restoration comprised not only the manor of Friar 

 Mayne and Westbroke with messuages and lands in 

 Westbroke, East Stafford, Warmwell, West Waddon, 

 and Dorchester and a pension of 20/. %d. from 

 West Knighton rectory, all belonging to the precep- 

 tory of Friar Mayne, but certain other lands and rents 

 in the county belonging to the preceptory of Temple 

 Combe in Somerset included in the same patent of re- 

 edification. 



91 



