A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



John Sympson, occurs I533, 148 surrendered 

 I536 14 ' 



The oval thirteenth-century seal shows the 

 Virgin and Child and St. John the Baptist 

 standing under a double canopy ; in base, the 

 abbot kneeling. 150 Legend : 



SIGILLUM ABBATIS ET CONVENTUS DE DUREFORD 



A round seal of the fourteenth century has 

 the Virgin seated under a triple canopy between 

 two saints ; in base, between a hart (in refer- 

 ence to Harting) and a hind, a shield of arms 

 a pastoral staff palewise, over all a griffin 

 passant. 161 Legend : 



# SIGILL . . . SvErus MOM' DE DUREFORD 



ORDlS PMOSTRATETTS ECCUE 



HOUSES OF KNIGHTS TEMPLARS 



19. THE PRECEPTORY OF SADDLES- 

 COMBE 



About the year 1228 Geoffrey de Say granted 

 the manor of Saddlescombe, some four miles 

 north-west of Brighton, to the Templars with 

 the assent of William de Warenne, earl of 

 Surrey, who added a grant of 40*. rent from 

 Lewes. At the same time, or shortly afterwards, 

 Simon le Counte gave them the churches of 

 Southwick and Woodmancote and certain tithes. 

 Alan Trenchmere gave land in Shoreham, where 

 the Templars erected a chapel which subse- 

 quently came into the hands of the Carmelite 

 Friars of that town, and Theobald de Engles- 

 cheville granted the manor of Compton in Ber- 

 wick, in return for which they had to provide 

 a chaplain to celebrate for the souls of the donor, 

 King Henry III, and Queen Eleanor. 



Upon the seizure of the property of the order 

 in 1308, the lands at Saddlescombe were returned 

 as worth 20, and the goods there, almost en- 

 tirely farming utensils, at j 5 IGJ. ; the Compton 

 lands being put at jT8 155. and the goods at 

 57 145. Although the lands belonging to this 

 preceptory were bestowed upon the Hospitallers, 

 the earl of Surrey managed to retain them for 

 the use of himself and his heirs until 1397. 



A remarkable document entered amongst the 

 Saddlescombe deeds and therefore possibly relating 

 to this preceptory, is a letter from a certain Arch- 

 bishop Azo requesting the master of the Temple 

 in England to receive Joan, the aged wife of 

 Sir Richard Chaldese, who had taken the oath of 

 chastity and wished to submit herself to the rule 

 of the Temple. 



20. THE PRECEPTORY OF SHIPLEY 



About 1125 Philip de Harcourt bestowed the 

 manor and church of Shipley upon the knights 



148 Harl. Chart. 3 C. 62. 



149 Valor Eccl. (Rolls Ser.), i, 321. 



150 Magd. Coll. Oxon. D. 



of the Temple, subsequently, in 1154, adding 

 the church of Sompting, with which apparently 

 went the chapel of Cokeham in which, however, 

 the family of Bernehus had certain rights 

 which were the occasion of several disputes. 

 Another chapel belonging to this house was that 

 of Knepp in the neighbourhood, of which the 

 monks of Sele claimed certain tithes ; by an 

 agreement made in 1181 the monks surrendered 

 these claims, and undertook, that if any of their 

 brethren should minister in the chapel of Knepp 

 he should pay over all offerings received to the 

 preceptor of Shipley, who should give him such 

 remuneration as he saw fit. The advowsons of 

 Woodmancote and Southwick, originally granted 

 to the Templars of Saddlescombe, appear to have 

 been taken over by the larger preceptory of 

 Shipley indeed, it is not improbable that at the 

 time of the suppression of the order Saddlescombe 

 may have been only a ' camera ' of Shipley. 



The inventory made in 1308 gives a long list 

 of household and farming implements, a small 

 quantity of armour, twenty silver spoons, and ' a 

 book of Kings and a book of Beasts,' the value 

 of which was unknown to the jurors. The 

 manor of Shipley was returned at 8 i8j. \\d., 

 the church at ^13 6;. 8^., and the goods at 

 ^73 121. 3^. At Sompting, the lands and church 

 together were worth ^27 13*. 4^., and the 

 goods 24 igs. i\d. There was a further 

 j6 arising from lands in Loxwood and Wis- 

 borough. 



Among the knights examined with regard to 

 the charges brought against their order were 

 William de Egendon, who had been preceptor 

 of Shipley for four years, William de la Fenne, 

 a former member of this house, in the dormitory 

 of which he had been admitted fifteen years 

 earlier, and three others connected with Shipley. 



151 Ibid. 



1 The accounts of these two houses are taken, ex- 

 cept where other references are given, from the article 

 by W. H. Blaauw, in Suss. Arch. Coll. ix, 227-74, 

 which is based upon the Cott. MS. Nero E. vi, and 

 Wilkins, ConciRa. 



92 



