A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



there, for the preceptory of Dinsley is men- 

 tioned in the reign of Richard II.** 



How long this cell was maintained is doubtful. 

 The manor was leased 12 September 1498" to 

 John Tong, preceptor of Ribston and Mount 

 St. John, for the term of his life at a rent of 

 lz6 i3j-.4i.,Tong undertaking to find a chaplain 

 to perform the religious services for \\hich the 

 lands had been given to the Templars.'" It 

 may, therefore, be concluded that Dinsley 

 had then ceased to be a preceptory. Yet it 

 seems likely that the arrangement marked a 

 new departure and was regarded as temporary, 

 for 9 November 1500 Prior Robert Kendal and 

 the Chapter granted to Robert Shawe, chap- 

 lain,*i his board in the manor of Dinsley at the 

 table of their gentlemen there, a room and 

 salary of 5 marks to be received from the 

 prior, or from the preceptor, farmer or warden 

 of the manor, and in return Shawe was to 

 perform the services in the chapel as long as he 

 was able. 



It is clear, however, that the preceptory was 

 never re-established. The manor was let in 

 1507 at ^26 I3J-. \d. a year to Thomas Hobson, 



who was to provide the chaplain and maintain 

 for two days and nights the officials sent once 

 or twice a year by the Prior of St. John to 

 survey the property.'* In 15 14 it was let on 

 the same terms to Reginald Adyson and his 

 wife Dorothy for fifty years," and their lease 

 becoming void in 1519 through non-payment of 

 the rent, to John Docwra for forty years.** 



It is evident, therefore, that beyond a change 

 in the ownership of the land the dissolution of 

 the order of St. John in 1540'" made little 

 difference here." 



The receipts of the Templars' estate at 

 Dinsley from Michaelmas 131 1 to Michaelmas 

 1 3 12 were (^t. 19J. 9J(f.," but of this sum the 

 amount derived from rents and profits of court 

 was only ;^24 \zs. %d. In 1338, as has been 

 said, the manor was let for ^18, " in 1535 it 

 was valued at ^29 3^-. 4^. a year.'* 



Preceptors of Dinsley 



Richard Fitz John, occurs 1255 *" 

 Ralph de Maltone, occurs 11 June 1301 " 

 John Dalton, occurs 1380-1 ** and September 

 1389 « 



FRIARIES 



15. KING'S LANGLEY PRIORY 



The Dominican priory within the royal 

 manor of Langley was founded in 1 308 * by 

 Edward II in fulfilment of a vow made when 

 in peril.* On I December the king made the 

 friars a grant of j^ioo a year until further 

 orders ' ; on 20 December he gave them his 

 garden near the church and land there for 



^ Cott. MS. Nero, E vi, fol. 129, I34d. 



59 Lansd. MS. 200, fol. 54. 



^^ At an inquisition in 1347 the jurors said that 

 the Hospitallers held the manor of Temple Dinsley 

 of the heirs of former lords of Hitchin, Dinsley 

 Furnival and King's Walden, by the service ot 

 finding two chaplains to celebrate in the chapel 

 of the manor for ever for the souls of those who 

 enfeoffed the Templars (Cott. MS. Nero, E vi, 

 fol. 133). 



'1 Lansd. MS. 200, fol. 78. Tong was still 

 farmer of the manor. 



1 Rev. C. F. R. Palmer (' The King's Confessors', 

 Antiq. ixii, I 59) gives 1307 as the date of foundation, 

 but there seems no mention of the house before 

 I Dec. 1308. The friars were probably brought 

 firom Oxford. The two houses, at any rate, were 

 closely connected, for in the chapter-general at Pavia 

 in 1423 it was ordained that the government of 

 Langley should chiefly belong to the brothers of the 

 visitation of Oxford, ' who by their sole labour and at 

 their sole expense had caused the priory to be built ' 

 {Cal. of Papal Letters, vii, 514). 



^ CaLPat. 1307-13, p. 453. 



3 Ibid. 95. 



building,* and the next day assigned to them as 

 a dwelHng until the priory could be built a 

 place called ' Little London.' ' The first prior 



'* Cott. MS. Claud. E vi, fol. 51. 



''Ibid. fol. 144 d. On this occasion an inven- 

 tory was made of the contents of the chapel, among 

 which were 3 mass-books, one new and two old, 3 old 

 graduals in parchment, an old portifory of parchment, 

 a vestment of red camlet with a cross of black damask 

 and Sir John Tong's arms upon it, another vestment of 

 white linen, a cope with Sir John Tong's arms, 8 altar- 

 cloths including one of red tarterine with images of 

 gold thereon with a frontal of the same, 8 curtains of 

 various kinds, 2 canopies, one being of ' cypres bordered 

 with silk with 4 knoppes of red silk,' 3 paxes, one of 

 ivory, a chalice of silver parcel gilt weighing 6 oz., 

 2 pairs of cruets and a bottle of pewter, a copper 

 cross, a pair of censers and two candlesticb of latten, 

 &c. There were two altars besides the high altar and 

 images of the Virgin Mary and St. John Baptist. 



^ Ibid. fol. 200, 217. 



" L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xv, 498. 



^ It does not figure in the list of preceptorics then 

 (Add. MS. 213 1 5, fol. 59). 



'^L.T.R. Enr. Accts. 18, roll 51. Expenses 

 amounted to £\o 6s. 6^d. 



^ Larking, op. cit. 172. 



" Fa/or Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 403. 



*" Assize R. 320, m. 4. 



" Cott. MS. Nero, E vi, fol. 1 29. 



<* Ibid. fol. I34d. « Ibid. fol. 129. 



* Cal. Pat. 1307-13, p. 148 ; Memo. R. (Exch. 

 L.T.R.), Mich. 9 Hen. V, rot. 9. 



' Cal. Pat. 1307-13, p. 96. 



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