HOUSES OF KNIGHTS HOSPITALLERS
16. PRECEPTORY OF CHIPPENHAM
Like Denney for the Templars, the preceptory
at Chippenham was a hospital for sick Hospitallers,
perhaps from its foundation. It was founded by
William de Mandeville, Earl of Essex, in 1184,
and received from him manorial rights and a comparatively small endowment of land. (fn. 1) The parish
church at Chippenham was appropriated to Walden Abbey, (fn. 2) and was never in the possession of the
Hospitallers. Most of the land which eventually
came to Chippenham lay in Ashley and Silverley,
and these possessions were, in 1338, accounted as
forming a separate camera of the hospital. (fn. 3) A long
series of grants went to endow the chapel of the
infirmary, (fn. 4) and in Chippenham itself a third of the
tithes was given by Maud, Countess of Essex, to
maintain a light, (fn. 5) described in later gifts as being
before the altar of St. Mary in this chapel. The
special character of the house was well established
at least by the second quarter of the 13th century,
when the preceptory was the object of royal gifts
of wine, (fn. 6) perhaps partly on that account. The
foundation of two chantries for which the Order
was responsible, one in the chapel of the infirmary
at Chippenham, and one at Ashley, can be traced
to about 1265-72. From about this time the
profits of a number of small gifts of land (fn. 7) made by
Reynold and Alexander Arsik, William Ranulf,
Robert Gynes, and others in their own villages
and in Moulton seem to have been consolidated
with the chantry of Peter 'Balestarius', who endowed a chaplain to celebrate at the altar of St.
Mary in the infirmary for himself, his father, and
his mother. (fn. 8) During the reign of Edward I the
gifts of the Arsiks to the lamp before this altar
included families of nativi, and flocks of sheep,
with common pasture for them; (fn. 9) a little later there
was a donation for candles in the chapel, (fn. 10) and
another for incense at Christmas. (fn. 11)
The chantry at Ashley was founded by William
Ranulf, who gave 50 acres of land to endow it. (fn. 12)
Soon after the enactment of the Statute of Mortmain licence was obtained to add a further 200
acres adjacent. (fn. 13) In Silverley the Master of Chippenham held in 1279 twelve score acres of the
alms of the ancestors of Geoffrey Arsik, (fn. 14) who
himself granted the whole of his 2 knights' fees
there 'to the blessed poor of the holy Hospital of
St. John' at Chippenham. (fn. 15) In 1299 the prior
proved his manorial rights in Shingay, Chippenham, Snailwell, and Madingley, but claimed no
such rights in Ashley or Silverley. (fn. 16) With the
fall of the Templars certain property and rights in
Isleham fen, which had been theirs, came to the
Hospitallers, and about the same time other property
was granted them at Lackford in Suffolk, and a
messuage in Cavenham called Togrind, the gift
of the Earl of Gloucester, with a water-mill, a
fulling-mill held of Richard de la Cressoner of
Ickleton, and other small pieces of land. (fn. 17) Gifts of
real property petered out between 1317 and the
Black Death. Until that time the lamp at the
Lady Altar of the Infirmary chapel and its chaplain were the most frequent objects of generosity,
but from time to time the phrases the 'blessed
poor' or, more explicitly, the 'infirm brethren' or
'the benefit of the sick' occur. (fn. 18) On 17 April 1226,
when he was at Ely, Henry III granted a Monday
market at Chippenham to the hospital, (fn. 19) and in
1234 the grant was confirmed and extended to
include a two days' fair annually at Michaelmas. (fn. 20)
Henry frequently stayed at Chippenham, and
seems to have made the 'house of the Hospital'
there his stage between Barnwell and Ely on more
than one occasion. (fn. 21) William, Earl Warenne,
granted to 'St. John of Chippenham and the
hospital there' freedom from all tolls on food,
drink, and clothing passing through his town of
Thetford, (fn. 22) by way of which traffic would come
from Norwich, Lynn, and the other house of the
Hospitallers in Norwich diocese at Carbrooke. In
1280 Edward I conceded to the prior right of free
warren over all his demesnes in Chippenham. (fn. 23)
The organization of Chippenham as an infirmary for the whole priory in England is made
very clear in the report of Philip de Thame. The
expenses of the house in 1338 were reckoned as
for 'the preceptor and three brethren and two
secular chaplains in the hall; the household staff
(familia) and guests from time to time; and for
seven brethren and three servants in the infirmary,
with provision for other brethren, according to the
number of cases of sickness in the Priory'. (fn. 24) The
whole priory supported 80 corrodarians; 'Some
of these are chaplains who serve our churches,
others seneschals, others janitors; others again are
farm-workers who take divers corrodies according
to the terms of their charters.' (fn. 25) Of these five are
found at Chippenham, where there was also one
less usual resident, a donatus. (fn. 26) In all England
there are said to have been three donati, a kind of
lay brethren who had given themselves and their
property to the Order but had not taken the vows.
The only donat named in the report is John
Brex, the brother of William Brex who was probably Preceptor at Yeveley (Derbs.) in 1328. (fn. 27)
The brothers were to receive 26 marks between
them for their joint lives, and John was to have
10 marks after William's death. (fn. 28) John Brex had
an allowance of 22s. 8d. at Yeveley in 1338, but
had the right to eat at the table of the brethren at
Chippenham and had a horse and groom at the
charges of that house, besides an annual allowance
of 40s. (fn. 29) One corrodarian at Chippenham was
Thomas Honyman, seneschal of the house; a
second, Richard le Port, was probably porter of
the house; (fn. 30) the remaining three were William le
Ferour (probably a shoeing-smith), John Frere,
and John Anketil, all appointed by Larcher. (fn. 31)
They had their maintenance at the servants'
table and the first had 10s. and the other two
6s. 8d. in addition. The secular chaplains were
not corrodarians at Chippenham, for they had their
chantry and stipend; each received 20s., and one
appears to have been the priest of Balestar's chantry at the altar of St. Mary. There were two
chapels, one perhaps the considerable church to
which frequent reference is made and the other,
attached to the infirmary, that in which the Lady
Altar, the lamp, and the chantry were established.
The wine, wax, oil, 'and other necessaries' for
both cost 13s. 4d. a year.
In the report the accounts concerning corrodarians are followed by those for the familia of
superior servants. The claviger, baker, and cook
were given clothes which cost 8s. a year for each
and had each a stipend of 5s. The preceptor's two
grooms had 9s. each for clothing and wages and
40 quarters of oats at 1s. a quarter allotted for his
horse and the horses of chance guests. Brother
Alan de Hetherington, preceptor at this time, was
a chaplain, and there was another chaplain a member of his preceptory, an unusual circumstance:
the remaining brethren in aula were Roger de
Tothal, a knight, and Richard de Gotham, servitor. Six brethren in the Infirmaria are named: (fn. 32)
3 were servitors, 2 priests, and 1 a knight. The
knight, Robert de Somerdby, had signed the preliminary report sent to the Grand Master, Elyas
de Villanova, in 1328, as Preceptor of Clerkenwell. (fn. 33) The invalids were waited on by three
servants, paid 5s. each, as was the clerk of the preceptory church. The clothing account for the
preceptor and 11 brethren amounted to £11 for
habits, £3 13s. 4d. for mantles, and £4 8s. for
other necessaries. The report puts the whole of
the expenses of the house, including alms in kind,
a small pension to the vicar of Chippenham, and
£3 for the prior's annual visitation, lasting 3 days,
at £94 16s. 6d. The receipts of the 'bailey' in its
profit-making aspect amounted to £110 16s. 9d.,
leaving a balance of £16 0s. 3d. for transmission to
the treasurer at Clerkenwell, with a further sum
of £18 13s. 4d. from the camera at Ashley. Ashley
was charged with 5 marks for the stipend of a
chaplain, as provided by the founders of the
chantry there, and with £1 6s. 8d. pro roba et
necessariis suis for Roger de Dalton quondam frater
Templi, custos ibidem
(fn. 34) —the young Templar of
30 years before. (fn. 35)
The Peasants' Revolt began in East Anglia
at Sudbury on Wednesday, 12 June 1381. On
14 June, while the attack on the abbey at Bury
St. Edmunds was in progress, John Harras of
Herringswell broke into the Hospitallers' house
at Chippenham and stole a sack of malt, which
he sold. There was no personal violence on this
occasion, and he and his accomplice, William Hilgrave of Dalham, were subsequently pardoned. (fn. 36)
On Saturday 15 June, however, Robert Tavell of
Lavenham, one of the leaders in the great riot at
Bury, came into Cambridgeshire and, with William
Cobbe of Gazeley, attacked the preceptory in force,
carrying off property and driving away cattle. (fn. 37)
Little has been found relating to Chippenham
in the 15th century. The reorganization of the
hospital during the sojourn of the Knights at
Rhodes, and the modifications made in the method
of appointing both the great officers of the convent and the preceptors in England, (fn. 38) may have
had repercussions at Chippenham, for towards the
end of the cartulary there are traces of closer connexion with, possibly of subjection to, Carbrooke, (fn. 39)
and later, the infirmary, as such, having ceased
to exist, Chippenham was administered as a
'member' or manor, of the Norfolk preceptory.
Apparently this was the case in 1527, for on
3 June of that year Chippenham was 'dismembered' from the Norfolk preceptory, and the rent
was given to Mark Piallete, a Rhodiote who 'followed the Order', apparently as a lay official,
after the fall of Rhodes; but in May 1537 Chippenham was restored to Carbrooke, the joint preceptory being charged with a pension of £6 13s. 4d.
to Piallete. (fn. 40)
In 1535, Chippenham ranked as part of the
preceptory of Carbrooke, of which the temporalities were only a little more valuable in Norfolk
than in Cambridgeshire—£36 1s. 1½d. as against
£33 13s. 4d. (fn. 41) The reeve and the chantrypriest still lived at Chippenham, but the manorhouse was no more a religious house than any
other manor owned by a community; even its
church had passed into secular hands. When, in
1540, the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in
England was suppressed, among its possessions
granted to Sir Edward North were the manors of
Chippenham and Ashley-cum-Silverley; in each
case a church with its 'stuff' was reserved. The
furnishings of the chantry-chapel at Ashley were
simple, and included no more than was necessary
—a missal worth 2s. 8d., a silver chalice and paten
weighing 8 oz. and worth 26s. 8d., two sets of
vestments, a super-altar, two altar-cloths, a cruet,
brass stoup, sacring-bell, and one corporal. At
Chippenham the reserved church furniture was in
a very different category, but the stuff had been
'sold to Mr. Boulls 15 yeres past as he saieth'. (fn. 42)
In 1540 the manor was still let to John Boules for
£33 6s. 8d. a year, and the '15 yeres past' would
take his purchase back to a time shortly before
Chippenham was dismembered from Carbrooke
in favour of Piallete. Both the allotment of the
manor to the Rhodiote official and the sale of the
handsome fittings of the church may have been
part of an effort to raise every penny available in
this country for the prosecution of the war against
the Turks.
Masters or Preceptors (fn. 43) of Chippenham
Hugh Pippard, occurs c. 1245. (fn. 44)
William de Sywardby, occurs 1256. (fn. 45)
Roger Marescall, occurs 1262. (fn. 46)
Philip de Colham, occurs 1279. (fn. 47)
Nicholas de Accombe, occurs c. 1290. (fn. 48)
William de Brex, occurs 1326. (fn. 49)
Alan de Hetherington, occurs 1338. (fn. 50)