HOUSE OF KNIGHTS HOSPITALLERS
45. THE PRECEPTORY OF CARBROOKE
In the time of Henry II, Maud, countess of
Clare, gave the church of St. Peter, Great Carbrooke, and of St. John Baptist, Little Carbrooke,
to the Knights Hospitallers, together with the
manor and other endowments. The house itself of the preceptory was dedicated to St. John
Baptist, with a chapel attached. The sixteen
stalls in the parish church of Great Carbrooke
were supposed by Blomefield to indicate the
number of Knights of the Order there resident;
but this was an error, for the house was far
smaller, accommodating one knight or preceptor,
and two brethren, who would all worship in
their own chapel. (fn. 1)
The preceptories of this order were occasionally called Hospitals, in cases where the inmates
had no other hospitality to discharge than that of
relieving wayfarers or cases of special distress;
but the foundation of Carbrooke specially entitled
them to the name hospital, as they had the
charge of twelve poor persons.
Blomefield states that Sir Alexander de Mitcham was master or preceptor from 1307 to
1315, and he occurs in 1308 as witness to a grant
by Richard de Carbrook. (fn. 2) . The only other preceptors he names are Elias, 1256; Robert de
Heugham, 1285; and John Halligate, 1424.
The general return of the Knights Hospitallers in England made by Philip de Thame, the
English prior, in 1338, gives £192 2s. 4¼d. as
the annual value of Carbrooke Preceptory. In
addition to many acres of land and pasture at
Carbrooke, Costessy, and Bamburgh, which they
farmed themselves, the preceptory had large rents
both in money and kind, the latter being paid in
barley, oats, or poultry, as well as autumn services from villeins. The court fees and perquisites averaged £4; two windmills brought in
40s., and the dovecote 6s. 8d. The rectories of
the churches of Great and Little Carbrooke produced an annual income of £40, whilst the freewill offering collected in the neighbourhood,
possibly throughout the whole county, averaged
130 marks.
The list of expenses (which amounted to
£71 12s. 7½d.) shows that those who had their
daily board in the house were the preceptor, two
brethren, the vicar of Great Carbrooke and his
servant, two secular chaplains, who celebrated
for the soul of the founder, four clerks who collected the offerings of the district, twelve poor
persons, one of whom had a loaf of bread weighing sixty ounces, eight servants of the houses,
and also those who were occasionally hospitably
entertained. The stipends of the two chaplains
celebrating in the chapel were 40s. A robe for
the steward of their courts and his fee amounted
to 46s. 8d., the robe and stipend of the preceptor's squire 20s., and those of the chamberlain,
bailiff, cook, baker, porter, warrener, carpenter,
and gardener, 6s. 8d. each. Two boys of the
preceptor had 3s. 4d. each, and the stable boy
and kitchen boy 5s. each. The washerwoman
was paid 4s. a year, and the prior's three days'
visitation cost them 60s. The handsome balance
of about £120, after paying all expenses, went
to the English Prior-General at Clerkenwell.
Sir Alan Macy was at this time preceptor; the
two brethren were Thomas de Hinton (chaplain)
and William de Boyton. (fn. 3)
The most distinguishing feature of the accounts
of Carbrooke is the large sum of £86 13s. 4d.
entered under fraria ad voluntatem contribuentium. The confraria, fraria, or collecta, as it
was diversely termed, was a highly important
item of the accounts of the commanderies or
preceptories of the Knights Hospitallers. Voluntary collections were made by clerks specially
deputed for the purpose from churches and
the faithful in general. The total collected in
England and Wales in this way, in the year
1338, was £888 4s. 3d. Carbrooke Preceptory
actually contributed nearly a tenth of the whole
amount. There can be little doubt that they
gathered from the whole county of Norfolk, as
theirs was the only preceptory within its bounds;
and this would account for their keeping the exceptional number of four clerks for the purpose.
Innocent VI issued his mandate in 1353 to
the prior and archdeacon of Norwich and to the
precentor of Hereford to carry out the ordinances
touching apostates in regard to William de
Boyton, Hospitaller, who left the hospital of
Carbrooke, in the diocese of Norwich, and then
desired to be reconciled to it. (fn. 4)
At some time before the Valor of 1535 was
taken this preceptory had become amalgamated
with that of Chippenham, Cambridge; they were
both under the same preceptor, Sir Thomas
Copledyke. The rectory of Carbrooke then produced £6 10s. The vicar had a pension of £4,
which was probably in addition to his board at
the preceptory. Two priests had £5 each for
celebrating. The temporalities of Carbrooke
(without Chippenham) realized £36 1s. 1½d.
Six boys are entered as maintained according to
the foundation charter at a cost of £12, but
this apparently refers to Chippenham: there is
no reference to the twelve poor persons sustained
at Carbrooke in the fourteenth century.
An inventory was made of the goods and
chattels of the late commandery of Carbrooke on
21 November, 1541, by Sir Richard Southwell
and Thomas Mildmay, as King's commissioners.
The contents of the chapel were poor, namely,
a chalice, a mass-book, two cruets, a sacring
bell, an old surplice, two corporas-cases, two old
rent altar-cloths, a covering on the altar of black
buckram, 'a cloth before the altar with the
pycture of seynt Ihu olde,' an old psalter, two
latten candlesticks, and a bell weighing 20 lb.
The total value of the goods and chattels, including corn in the barn, corn and hay in stacks,
and ten acres of sown wheat, was estimated at
£46 19s. 4d., exclusive of the silver chalice.
There was allowed to Sir Thomas Copledyke, as
preceptor, 'accordynge to the statut' a sixth
part of this value. The annual value of the
vicarage of Carbrooke is stated to be £8, (fn. 5) but a
much corrected Valor of the possessions of this
preceptory, temp. Henry VIII, probably of the
year of its suppression, gives the value of the
rectory of Carbrooke at 10s. 10d.; the rents of
assize, £ 15 3s. 5½d.; the manor farm, £15 4s. 8d.;
the foldcourse for 200 sheep, 30s.; and the
court perquisites 20s. (fn. 6)
The site of the house, the manor and the
rectory were granted in 1543 to Sir Richard
Gresham and Sir Richard Southwell.
Sisters Hospitallers of Little Carbrooke
Maud, countess of Clare, at the same time
that she established the preceptory of Knights
Hospitallers at Great Carbrooke, placed some
sisters of their Order in a hospital near the
church of Little Carbrooke. But very soon after
their foundation, namely, in 1180, Henry II
gave the order the monastery of Buckland,
Somerset, on the condition that they should there
place all the English Sisters Hospitallers, who
had previously lived in several preceptories.
Henceforth Buckland was the only English
house for these sisters, those of Little Carbrooke
being at once transferred there. From Little
Carbrooke 13s. 4d. was paid as an annual pension
to the Somerset nunnery; that sum appears in
the Valor of 1535. (fn. 7)