HOUSE OF KNIGHTS HOSPITALLERS
19. THE PRECEPTORY OF BALSALL AND GRAFTON
When the order of Knights Templars was suppressed in 1308, their possessions in this country
came into the king's hands. In some instances
their property was for a time enjoyed by the heirs
of the donors, as was the case at Balsall, where
the manor passed to John Mowbray, and was
held by him until his attainder and death in 1322.
At that date the whole preceptory and its members passed duly into the hands of the Knights
Hospitallers according to the papal ordinance.
In 1338 Prior Philip de Thame drew up an
elaborate report of the possessions of the Knights
Hospitallers in England. (fn. 1) The total receipts of
this preceptory and its members for that year
amounted to £127 2s. 6d., the expenses and
payments reached £74 19s., leaving the handsome balance for the London treasury of
£52 3s. 6d. The manor and garden at Balsall
produced 20s. a year; the dovecote, 10s.; 500
acres of land, £12 10s.; 60 acres of meadow,
£9; rents of free tenants, 66 marks; labour of
bond tenants, 100s.; a water-mill, 60s.; 60 acres
of meadow, £6; pasturage, 8¼ marks; profits of
stock, 60s.; profits of underwood, 100s.; pleas
and perquisites of the manor courts, 100s.; and
the appropriation of the church of Sherborne,
6½ marks. The 360 acres of land and other
profits arising from the member of Fletchamstead,
and the considerable rents and services of the
member of Caldecote produced the remainder of
the receipts. The expenses of the preceptor, two
brethren, and others of the household, were thus
apportioned, namely: bread, £15; beer, £10;
flesh, fish, and other kitchen necessaries, at 5s. a
week, £13; robes, mantles, and other clothing
for the preceptor and two brothers, 104s.; a robe
and salary for a clerk for the courts, and writing
out the accounts, 20s.; a robe and salaries for a
chamberlain, a cook, a baker, and a woodward,
1 mark each, 53s. 4d.; three servant lads of the
preceptor, and a porter, half a mark each, 26s. 8d.;
fee and robe for a steward, 40s.; stipends of two
chaplains celebrating in the chapel, 40s.; stipend
of a chaplain at Fletchamstead for the souls of the
founders, 5 marks; a pension to Edmund Trussel
of 100s., and another of 5 marks to Humphrey
de Hastanet; wine, wax, and oil for the chapel,
5s.; repairs of buildings, 50s.; visitation of the
prior for six days, £6; and robe and stipend for
the bailiff of Fletchamstead, 2 marks.
The names of the three brothers of this house
in 1338 were Henry de Buckston, the preceptor,
Simon Dyseny, and John de Sprottelee. After
Dyseny's name is miles, and after the two others
the letter S. From its first foundation, the order
of Hospitallers consisted of three classes of professed brethren who had taken the oath and
assumed the habit. These were the milites or
knights, the capellani or chaplains, and the servientes armorum or serjeants-at-arms. The chaplains of this house were ex obedientia, that is,
salaried and not professed. The two brethren
with S after their names were serjeants, and quite
different from the salaried servientes officii.
The house of Templars beyond the bridge at
Warwick, founded by Roger, earl of Warwick,
in the time of Henry I, was united with the preceptory of Balsall when the Templars were dissolved. The return of 1338 gave its receipts as
£18 3s. 4d., and the expenses as £12 6s. 8d.,
leaving a balance for the general treasury of the
Hospitallers of £5 16s. 8d. The expenses show
that 5 marks was the salary of the chaplain celebrating in the chapel for the souls of the founders,
and 20s. for a bailiff who took charge of the lands
and meadows.
The manor of Grafton Superior or Upper
Grafton belonged to the Knights Hospitallers as
early as the reign of Richard I. It never had
any connexion whatever with the Knights Templars; and it is not a little remarkable how strenuously an historical blunder in nomenclature
(Temple Grafton), first made in the time of
Henry VIII, has been maintained.
The return of 1338 (fn. 2) gives the total annual
receipts of this commandery or preceptory as
£88 15s. 2d., and the expenses £29 15s. 1d.,
leaving the handsome balance for the Clerkenwell
treasury of £59 0s. 1d. The messuage and
garden were of the yearly worth of a mark; the
dovecote, 6s. 8d.; 480 acres of land, £16; rents
of free tenants, 4s. 2d.; court pleas and fees, 60s.;
profits of 100 sheep, 20s.; profits of eight cows,
16s.; appropriation of the church of Grafton,
£8; lands and stock at Berstanton (Barston in
the parish of Berkswell), £16 1s. 8d.; and voluntary contributions (confraria), 24 marks. Every
preceptory or commandery of the Hospitallers
sent out clerks once a year to collect offerings for
their funds within a given area. They thus
gathered a very considerable annual sum. The
amount gleaned throughout England and Wales
in 1388 reached the total of £888 4s. 3d. The
ground over which the preceptory of Grafton
collected was probably coterminous with the
county. The annual expenses of the house were
£6 for bread; £5 for beer; 5 marks for flesh, fish,
and kitchen necessaries; 4s. for wine, flour, and
oil for the chapel; and 69s. 4d. for robes, mantles,
and other necessaries for the preceptor and his
tellow brother. The vicar of Grafton had his
board in the house and a pension of 15s.; one
Roger de Belve and his servant had a corrody
worth £4; and another corrodian, Walter de
Morcote, had a yearly pension of 20s. by order
of the chapter. The repairing of the buildings
involved an annual outlay of 20s.; procuration
fee and entertainment for the archdeacon, 9s. 5½d.;
the three days' visitation of the prior, 60s; the
stipend of the bailiff at Barston, 13s. 4d.; and
stipend of two pages, 4s. The two brothers of
the house were Henry de Bokston, preceptor, S.,
and Thomas de Lynlee, chaplain. Hence there
was no stipend for the chaplain in the account,
as he was a professed member of the order.
The office of preceptor of Balsall was usually
united with that of preceptor of Grafton in this
county. Robert Mallory, who was preceptor of
Balsall and Grafton, was raised to the position of
grand prior of England in 1433. John Langstrother, who was also head of these two preceptories, was likewise made grand prior in the year
1470. He took the side of Lancaster in the
Civil Wars, and being taken prisoner at the battle
of Tewkesbury, was beheaded in cold blood in
1471 by order of Edward IV. (fn. 3)
It would appear that Balsall ceased to be the
residence of a preceptor (who probably made
Grafton his head quarters) in the fifteenth century. In the time of Edward IV and Henry VI,
John Beaufitz was the farmer of the Hospitallers
at Balsall, and resided there. (fn. 4)
In 1496 John Kendall, prior of St. John's,
leased the commandery of Balsall to (Sir) Robert
Throckmorton (afterwards knighted) for three
years at £184 13s. 4d., the lessee being bound
'to keep due and convenient hospitalitie and one
honest and able prest to minyster dyvine service
in the said commandrie.' A further agreement
was made that the lease should be renewed every
three years to the term of twenty years, if the
prior should live so long. (fn. 5) There seem to have
been some preliminary difficulties, as the prior
had to invoke secular aid to eject Robert Bellyngham, the king's 'serjeant porter,' serving a writ
upon him in October, 12 (Henry VII), in the
church of Erdington, (fn. 6) but Robert Throckmorton
was duly put into possession and continued to hold
the estate until Prior Kendall's death in 1503,
when his successor refused to renew the lease, but
allowed Sir Robert to hold for one year more on
condition that he paid up all arrears and that
yf Sir Launslott Dokwra . . . cam fro Roadys (i.e.
Rhodes) ynto the Realme of England and would use
and occupye the seid commaundrie for your said oratour
(i.e. the prior) that then the seid Sir Robert and his
assynes shuld departe and avoide from the same.
But when Sir Thomas Sheffeld and Sir Launcelot
Dokwra, knights of the Hospital, went to take
over the commandery, Sir Robert and Richard
his brother fortified the manor-house and refused
them admission, as could be testified by certain justices of the peace who accompanied the knights. (fn. 7)
Sir Robert and his brother were summoned to
appear before the council, but in the meanwhile
put in Arthur Wylcokkes, chaplain, and other
persons who sold the hay and did other waste and
injuries. (fn. 8)
When the order of Hospitallers was suppressed
in 1540, their property came into the king's
hands, and Balsall was given by him to his last
wife, Catherine Parr. (fn. 9)
Preceptors of Balsall
Henry de Buckston (Bokston), about 1338
Robert Mallory, about 1433
John Langstrother, about 1470