A HISrORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



HOUSE OF KNIGHTS HOSPITALLERS 



13. PRECEPTORY OF STANDON 



The Knights Hospitallers received from 

 Gilbert de Clare Earl of Hertford, in the reign 

 of King Stephen,^ the church of Standon and 

 140 acres of land and his vineyard in this 

 parish,^ and from Gilbert's brother and suc- 

 cessor Roger before 1 1 74' a mill outside the 

 gate of Standon.* Here, according to Tanner, 

 a preceptory was established for sisters of the 

 order, who in 1 1 80 were removed to Buckland 

 (co. Somerset).' As regards the sisters no evidence 

 has been found, but it seems certain that the 

 knights had at one time a preceptory here. In 

 certain agreements of 1280 and c. 1291-3 the 

 Hospitallers arranged that payments should be 

 made to ' their house of Standon,'® and all doubt 

 about the connexion of the hospital of Standon 

 mentioned in 1319-20' and in 1323' with the 

 Knights of St. John is removed by the entries 

 in the manorial court rolls of 1360.^ 



Scarcely anything is known of the history of 

 the house. The master in 1319-20 was accused 

 of carrying off the corn of the lord of the manor 

 from the fields by night and of assaulting the 

 lord's reaper^"; but when the prior, apparent!)' as 

 the master's superior, answered the charges " it 

 was found that the Hospitallers had only taken 

 their own corn. In 1323 the master was said to 

 have broken into the king's parks of Little 

 Hadham and Milkeley, hunted there and carried 

 off the deer.^ Possibly the character of the 

 head of the house at Standon had something to 

 do with the neglect of duties" incumbent on the 

 Hospitallers, of which from 1320 to 1328 there 

 are frequent complaints. 



' Earl Gilbert's grandfather died in 1 150 and was 

 succeeded by his son Richard. Gilbert himself died 

 in 1 1 52 (Diet. Nai. Biog.). 



^ Confirmation by King John, August I 199 {Cal. 

 Rot. Chart. 1199-1216 [Rec. Com.], 16). 



'He died before July or August 11 74 {Diet. 

 Nat. Biog.). 



* Confirmation by Roger's son Richard Earl of 

 Hertford (Cott. MS. Nero, E vi, fol. 123). 



^ Tanner, Notitia Mon. 



« Cott. MS. Nero, E vi, fol. 119. The same 

 expression is used for Clerkenwell in an indenture of 

 1376 (ibid. fol. 138). 



' Ct. Rolls (Gen. Ser.), portf. 178, no. 37. 



' Cal. Pat. I 321-4, p. 383. 



' Ct. Rolls (Gen. Ser.), portf. 178, no. 45. 



1" Ibid. no. 37. 



11 The prior and master were accused separately, 

 as if there was no connexion between them, but the 

 master's case was postponed until the lord could be 

 consulted, and nothing was said about it in the later 

 court when the prior made his settlement. 



^■^ Cal. Pat. 1 32 1-4, P- 383- 



'' Withdrawal of a chantry and alms (Ct. Rolls 

 [Gen. Ser.], portf. 178, no. 37, 39). 



In August 1330 Prior Thomas Larchier leased 

 the hospital's manor and the church of Standon 

 to William de Langford for 67 1 marks, and as 

 Langford was to receive the btdthers coming to 

 the manor,'* it seems improbable that there was 

 a preceptory here then.** Yet if the cell had been 

 given up, it was revived, for in 1358 there are 

 references to the master of the hospital of 

 St. John of Jerusalem at Standon," and in 

 September 1360 to the preceptor of Standon, 

 against whom charges of trespass were then 

 brought.*' 



After this nothing more is heard of the 

 preceptory. In the 15th century the rectory 

 and lordship of Standon were let to Ralph 

 Asteley, who in March 1443-4 bequeathed his 

 lease to his sons William and Thomas in equal 

 shares for the term of their lives on condition 

 that they supported the charges on the estate." 

 It was therefore no innovation when in 1505 

 the knights let the manor and parsonage of 

 Standon and Pagwell to John Kirkby," who 

 had to provide a priest for the chapel of the 

 manor and maintain for two days the steward 

 and surveyor of the Hospitallers coming to hold 

 the manorial courts and transact other business. 



The Hospitallers' property here was estimated 

 in 1338 at j£34 155. i^cL. a year gross value and 

 j^io 15^. 4i.net ^^ ; in 1535 its annual value was 

 reckoned at j^23 loj.^* 



Masters or Preceptors of Standon 



Thomas de Bassele, occurs November 1323,^ 



1324, and October 1326^ 

 Thomas Hether, occurs July ^* and September 



136026 



" Cott. MS. Nero, E vi, fol. i 20. 



1' The same conclusion might also be drawn from 

 Prior Philip de Thame's report in 1338, that the 

 chaplain at Standon was paid a stipend of 5 marb 

 because he had no board, though the mention of the 

 prior's visitation in the same account might of course 

 be taken to prove the existence of a community 

 (Larking, Tie Knights Hospitallers in Eng. [Camd. 

 Soc], 89). 



" Ct. R. (Gen. Ser.), portf. 178, no. 45. 



1' Ibid. 



'* Cant. Archiepis. Reg. Stafford, fol. 135 d.-i36. 



19 Cott. MS. Claud. E vi, fol. 10. The lease of 

 1524 (ibid. fol. 245 d.) is exactly the same. 



2" Larking, op. cit. 89-90. 



21 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 403. 



" Cal. Pat. 1321-4, p. 383. 



2' Brother Thomas de Bachele is mentioned in 

 the Standon court rolls at these dates, but not called 

 master of the hospital (Ct. R. [Gen. Ser.], portf. 178, 

 no. 37, 38). 



" He is not called preceptor then (ibid. no. 45). 



« Ibid. 



444 



