HOUSES OF KNIGHTS TEMPLARS
13. PRECEPTORY OF DENNEY
About the middle of the 12th century Robert,
chamberlain of Duke Conan IV of Brittany, held
of the duke, as Earl of Richmond, a manor in
Waterbeach, of which Godric, son of Radfrid
Brito, was tenant-in-fee, with the islands of
Denney and Elmeney. (fn. 1) Robert also held Wilbraham and Wendy of the earl, (fn. 2) and, in Richmondshire, property in Kirkby Fleetham, including
the advowson of the church. (fn. 3) His first intention
may have been to found a cell of Ely at Elmeney, (fn. 4)
but before 1159 he had built a church in honour
of St. James and St. Leonard on the larger island
of Denney. He endowed this with all the land that
Godric had held of him, two parts of the isle of
Elmeney and 9 acres in the open fields of Waterbeach, and handed it over to the Benedictines of
Ely under a monk named Reynold as prior in
the presence of Bishop Niel, who dedicated the
church. (fn. 5) A little later Conan (fn. 6) confirmed to 'the
monks serving God at Denney' his chamberlain's
gifts of the tithe of his demesne at Wendy and
Wilbraham, Wendy Church, and, with the
Bishop's consent, the advowson of all churches on
his land in Wendy, Wilbraham, and Kirkby. (fn. 7)
Robert himself became a monk at Ely (probably
about 1159) and died shortly afterwards. (fn. 8) His
priory had a very short existence.
The Knights of the Temple had arrived in
England in 1128. (fn. 9) In 1156 the Sheriff accounted
for 'new alms' to the knights of the Temple from
the farm of Cambridgeshire, (fn. 10) which by 1157 had
become elemosina constituta. (fn. 11) In 1159 the Templars were pardoned 9s. 11d., being their share
of a fine imposed for a murder on the hundred of
Armingford, (fn. 12) where Wendy lay, but the first of
their Cambridgeshire estates on which members
of the Order lived together under their Rule was
at Denney, which was transferred to the Templars by the community at Ely about 1170.
A bull of Alexander III of 17 October (probably 1173) confirms to the Master and Brethren
of the Temple the gift of Wilbraham Church
made to them by 'Nicholas', Bishop of Ely, with
the consent of 'R. and Gilbert his son, founders
and patrons of the said church'. (fn. 13) The copy is
exceedingly inaccurate, but it would seem that
Bishop Niel, who died 30 May 1169, had already
transferred part of the gift of Robert (who died
c. 1160), and his son George, to the Templars.
Another bull, probably of the end of 1174, confirmed to the Templars land given them in Waterbeach by George the chamberlain (who died
before Michaelmas 1175) (fn. 14) and Geoffrey, Earl
of Richmond, who succeeded to the Honor in
1171, (fn. 15) with the consent of Geoffrey's father,
King Henry II. A third bull of 6 May (probably 1177) confirmed an agreement between the
Templars and the monks of Ely about the
churches of Kirkby, Wilbraham, and Wendy,
and the places of Denney and Elmeney. (fn. 16) Three
royal charters are more explicit. Henry II confirmed the agreement, said to have been already
confirmed by Conan IV, by which the Templars
were to hold all that Godric, son of Radfrid,
formerly held in Wilbraham and Wendy (the
land which Robert the Chamberlain gave to the
church of Denney being of the fee of the Bishop
of Ely), and also the church of Wendy, and the
land in the island of Denney which Aubrey Picot
gave to the church there. The isle of Elmeney,
which Henry, father of the said Aubrey, gave to the
same church, was to remain appropriated for its
maintenance, and Richard Hastings, Master of
the Temple, agreed that his Order should pay an
annual rent of 4 marks to the Prior and Convent
of Ely, for the purposes of hospitality on the two
feasts of St. Etheldreda: (fn. 17) another royal charter
confirmed an instrument by which Niel the
chamberlain quitclaimed to the Templars, apparently after his brother's death, all that George
had given to them, (fn. 18) which the third describes as
'the whole of Beche', with the churches of
Kirkby, Wendy, and Wilbraham. (fn. 19) Conan IV
died 20 February 1171; negotiations for the
transfer must, therefore, have begun before that
date, and have been completed by 1177. The
proviso in one of the papal bulls that the three
churches were to be under the jurisdiction of the
Bishop of Ely was probably intended to safeguard
his existing rights when they passed into the hands
of an exempt Order.
It is not possible to say how soon Denney became a hospital for sick and superannuated members of the Order, but when Hugh, Bishop of
Ely—either Hugh Balsham after 1257, or, more
probably, Hugh Northwold between 1229 and
1254—instituted Robert de Swaffham as vicar of
Great Wilbraham in the presence of the Master
of the Temple, a composition was made by which
the great tithes of the church were allotted to the
support of the infirm brethren of the Order at
Denney. (fn. 20) The only other infirmary for Templars known to have existed in England was that
attached to Eagle, (fn. 21) one of their early houses in
Lincolnshire, which seems, like Denney, to have
occupied a special position in their economy. The
Hospitallers' house at Chippenham, which affords
a parallel as an infirmary, was founded in 1184,
and there also sick brethren are found early in
the 13th century. It is quite possible that Denney,
with its ready-built church and monastic buildings, was acquired by the Templars with the
object of using it for their sick from the first. In
1308, of the 10 or 11 brethren arrested at Denney
all but 2 must have been elderly, I was insane, and
2 were crippled by age and infirmity. (fn. 22)
In June 1244 Henry III stayed a night at
Barnwell and the next with the Hospitallers at
Chippenham. A week later, by a writ dated
at Ely, he ordered the sheriff of Norfolk to send
2 tuns of his wine lying at Walden Abbey, one to
the Hospitallers at Chippenham, the other to the
Templars at Denney, (fn. 23) whose house he must have
passed on his journey.
Although Denney occupied an important position in the Order, and the Templars of Cambridgeshire were comparatively numerous, it is
improbable that a knight was often, or perhaps
ever, preceptor. The management of an estate,
which was the purpose of all preceptories, or the
care of the sick, which was the special business of
Denney, was not primarily the affair of combatants. In England preceptors were more often
servitors than knights. Sometimes they were
chaplains. Of the 135 Templars brought to trial
in the British Isles, 6 only are described as miles
and 11 were priests, none of whom came from
Cambridgeshire.
The arrest of the Templars and the confiscation of their property took place on 10 January
1308, from which date until 3 June 1309, John
de Creke, sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, kept account of the manors of Denney,
Wilbraham, Carlton, and Duxford in Cambridgeshire, with two in Huntingdonshire. The list of
movables found by him at Denney (fn. 24) gives a clear
idea of the furnishing of a Templar's house.
Except in the chapel there is no ostentation of
wealth. Each brother, of whom there were 11, (fn. 25)
counting the preceptor and the invalids, had a
bed which, with their tunics and a clothes-bag,
was valued in the case of the preceptor at 20s.,
and for the rest at a mark, and there were 4
mazers and 6 silver spoons. In the chamber, with
the beds, stood a chest worth 2s. The hall was
furnished with 2 long trestle tables and 2 'tables
dormant', 2 wash-basins, and a form; kitchen and
bakehouse were well equipped with pots and
pans, &c. The church was rather better furnished
than the parish churches belonging to the Temple
in Cambridgeshire. Of the 3 silver chalices 2 were
gilt, as were the 2 cruets; 2 basins, a thurible, and
the pyx were of silver; there were only 2 surplices and 2 rochets, and 1 silk altar-cloth, with
burses, towels, and an old silk hanging, but there
were 4 choir copes, 6 tunicles of silk, and 6 complete sets of vestments. Of the books the most
interesting were the 2 missals 'of the use of the
Templars'; the rest consisted of a legenda in 2
volumes, and a psalter glossed, 3 other psalters, 2
antiphonals, an epistolar, 2 manuals, 3 graals, and
2 tropers described as 'old'. No secular chaplains
are known to have served this church, but priests
must have been provided from outside the
organization of the Temple, for none are found
among either brethren or corrodarians at Denney.
Fifteen Templars in all were arrested in
Cambridgeshire: (fn. 26) of these 10 or 11 were sent
from Denney and 4, or possibly only 3, from
the two other houses. (fn. 27) They were confined at
Cambridge Castle in charge of the sheriff until
30 September 1309, when they were handed over
to the Constable of the Tower of London, with
the exception of one Brother William de Mawringges, who died at Cambridge on 6 December
1308. (fn. 28) He may possibly have been one of the
invalids from Denney. The preceptor, William
de la Forde, had been custos infirmorum at Eagle, (fn. 29)
and may have been appointed to Denney for that
reason. He had been received into the Order
about 42 years before at Dinsley together with
Richard Peytevin and Thomas of Toulouse, who
had been arrested in other parts of the country,
and must, therefore, have been of advanced age.
The names of the Denney brethren suggest a local
origin in four instances; William de Chesterton
and William de Welles were old and infirm, John
de Hauville was insane, and William de Scotho
had been preceptor in 1286, (fn. 30) and was probably
elderly. Of the rest Roger de Dalton had been
received at Balsall, Hugh de Tadcaster was presumably a Yorkshireman, John de Newent and
Roger de Ludlow probably came from the
Marches, and Alexander de Bulbecke may have
been known by his family name. Robert Scot,
who had had a chequered career, bore a name
indicating his nationality.
The trial of the Templars dragged on until
1311, but, of these 11, 5 were examined rather
fully within a few weeks of their arrival in
London. None of the Cambridgeshire brethren
admitted anything material, and against those
from Denney there was little of the outside hearsay evidence which was freely accepted in this
country. The preceptor had apparently attended
most of the chapters since his admission, for he
said he had seen as many as 100 brethren admitted,
of whom only Newent and William de Chesterton
were, at the time of the arrest, members of his
own house at Denney. As infirmarian at Eagle
he had seen the funerals of 16 brethren, whereas none of the others gave evidence of having
seen more than 1 or 2. Dalton, who had been
professed only 4 years, had never seen another
admission or a funeral. (fn. 31) It appears that he
and Newent, who had been received about 8
years before at Wiloughton, were the only young
men at Denney; Chesterton, also received at
Wiloughton, had been a Templar for 30 years,
Alexander de Bulbecke, received at Templecombe, for 30, and Welles, who was received at
Temple Bruer, for 26. Hugh de Tadcaster was
porter (claviger) in the Temple as a secular, and
asked the master to admit him to the Order; this
was done at Flaxflete. (fn. 32) Later he had seen the
admission of Michael Baskervile, the London preceptor, who was a servitor, and that of a knight
at Dinsley, and he stated that the reception of the
knight was in exactly the same form as his own.
He had seen two other admissions also, the latest
3½ years before at Sutton in Essex.
Robert the Scot had been twice admitted to the
Order. (fn. 33) He had first joined it 26 years before in
Syria, but afterwards apostasized ex levitate and
remained outside it for two years. He then repented and went to Rome to confession to the
Pope's penitentiary, on whose advice he sought
readmission. He resumed the habit 'with alacrity
and much penitence' at Nicosia in Cyprus, which
after 1291 became the Templars' headquarters.
He had probably only retired from active service
and come to England—where he had been placed
with other superannuated brethren at Denney—
shortly before the fall of the Order, for he had
seen no admission in England. Like Tadcaster
and others he testified that all the funerals of
which he had had knowledge were held in public.
On one of the chief points against the Templars,
that of allowing lay absolution, William de la
Forde, as preceptor of a house where the confession of the sick and aged made it of particular
importance, gave very clear evidence. (fn. 34) He said
that lay preceptors absolved their brethren, not
from mortal sin, but from acts of canonical disobedience openly confessed in chapter, simply as
an act of forgiveness, and that he believed the
same was done in all Religious Orders. His evidence was borne out by that of the Preceptor of
Duxworth, William Raven of Wilbraham, Scotho,
and Dalton.
On 12 July 1311 William de la Forde, Robert
Scot, Raven, Scotho, and Tadcaster abjured and
were absolved. (fn. 35) On 13 July Newent abjured, (fn. 36)
and on the same day Welles and Chesterton with
three other aged and crippled brethren were
allowed to abjure privately in All Hallows
Church, close by their place of imprisonment in
the Tower of London. (fn. 37) Robert Scot and Roger
Dalton were handed over to John Ketene,
Bishop of Ely, 'to place in certain monasteries to
do penance', with an allowance of 4d. a day for
each of them. (fn. 38)
When John de Creke took over the preceptory
its yearly value was within a very little of the 100
marks at which it was valued when, about 20
years later, the manor was granted to the Countess of Pembroke. In addition to the usual expenses of a manor, 'wages' of 4d. a day had to be
found for the Templars while they were in Cambridge Castle, and maintenance, at 2d. a day, for
three corrodarians. (fn. 39) Two of these, Thomas
Giselingham and William de Sutton, had acquired their corrodies by services rendered and
contributions in land and money; the third,
Ralph Bonet, had been resident at Denney since
1293; all had their corrody at the table of the
esquires or free servants. (fn. 40) On 27 April 1308 the
king, at their petition, confirmed them all in an
allowance of 2d. a day in lieu of food. Bonet was
to have 10s. a year for clothing and 40d. for shoes,
Giselingham and Sutton yearly stipends of 5s.,
with 10s. a year for clothing for Giselingham and
5s. for Sutton. (fn. 41) Two pensions to religious houses
were also payable from Denney, one of a mark to
the Prioress of Wroxall in Warwickshire, which
originated in a grant made by Robert the Chamberlain before he gave the manor of Waterbeach
to the Templars, (fn. 42) and one of 26s. 8d. to the Prior
and Convent of Ely at the Translation of St.
Etheldreda. (fn. 43)