HOUSE OF KNIGHTS OF ST. LAZARUS
10. THE PRECEPTORY OF LOCKO
The order of St. Lazarus, having for its main
duty the care of lepers, and taking its name from
the gospel statement as to Lazarus (St. Luke
xvi, 20), was of great antiquity. The earliest
certain date that can be assigned to its operations
is the year 370, when a large hospital was
founded in the suburbs of Caesarea, under the
direction of St. Basil, for the reception and
nursing of lepers. When the Hospitallers had
been converted into a military fraternity, and
the Templars established on a similar footing, the
Lazarites followed their example and decided
to combine knightly prowess with religious
asceticism and charitable fervour. Hence it
came about, in the dawn of the twelfth century,
that the order of St Lazarus was formed on a
joint religious and military basis. Those among
them who were afflicted with the disease of
leprosy, or desired to profess entire service to
lepers, carried on the peaceful and religious duties
of their hospitals, following the rule of St.
Augustine; but such of the order as were not
lepers and desired to bear arms joined the ranks
of the kings of Palestine in resisting the continued
inroad of the infidels, and specially charged themselves with the duty of defending the Christian
leper-houses, whose numbers were constantly
being recruited from among both pilgrims and
soldiers. The whole order, of both grades,
was subject to a grand master who was bound
to be a leper. After the expulsion of the
Crusaders from Palestine, the order made its
head quarters in France, where Louis VII, in
1253, gave them lands at Boigny, near Orleans,
and a large building at the gates of Paris, which
they turned into a lazar-house for the lepers of
the city. Various preceptories of the order,
chiefly in France, became directly subject to the
rule of the Paris house, where the grand master
was established, in accordance with a bull of
1255.
The church of Spondon was granted by
William de Ferrers about 1180, to the hospital
of Burton Lazars in Leicestershire, a grant that
was confirmed by both Henry II and John. (fn. 1)
This hospital, founded in the reign of Stephen,
and dedicated to the Virgin and St. Lazarus, was
the chief leper-house in England, and it is usually
stated, but without sufficient warrant, that the
inferior lazar, or leper, hospitals throughout
England were in some measure subject to its
master, in the same way as he was to the master
of the whole order at Jerusalem. (fn. 2) This may
have been true in the twelfth and part of the
thirteenth centuries, but was certainly not the
case in the fourteenth century.
In addition to the valuable rectory of Spondon,
Burton Lazars eventually became possessed of a
good deal of landed property and rents in different
parts of the parish, not only in Spondon proper,
but in the hamlets of Borrowash, Chaddesden,
and Locko. (fn. 3)
The Hundred Rolls (fn. 4) show that in 1274 the
brethren of St. Lazarus held £10 of land in
Spondon itself as well as the church, and also
100s. of land in Borrowash, and forty acres in
Locko, all of which had been acquired of various
donors in or before the reign of Henry III. (fn. 5)
The Taxation Roll of 1291 states that the
brethren of the house of St. Lazarus held a manor
at Spondon and another at Locko, and their
united annual value was entered at £5 6s. 10d.
These lands were confirmed to the brethren in
1296.
The master of St. Lazarus of Burton paid
26s. 8d. on land at Spondon in 1302, (fn. 6) and again
in 1346, (fn. 7) and this at £2 for a fee is equivalent
to the two-thirds of a fee held there by the
brethren in 1296. (fn. 8)
On the confiscation of the Ferrers estates (fn. 9)
at Locko there was a preceptory of the order
with hospital attached dedicated to St. Mary
Magdalen.
This preceptory of Locko (the only regular
preceptory of the Lazarite order in England of
which we have found any record), owed direct
allegiance to the mother-house of the order at
Paris, and hence was regarded as an alien establishment during the fourteenth-century wars
with France.
On 30 July, 1347, Edward III granted letters
patent to the warden and scholars of the newly
founded King's Hall at Cambridge, assigning to
them, towards the construction of their buildings
then in progress, £20 a year from the preceptory
of Locko, which is there styled 'Domus de la
Maudeleyne de Lokhay in com. Derb. Ordinis
militie Sci. Lazari Jerusalem.' It is stated in
the letters that this was the sum paid yearly as
apport or tribute by the preceptor of Locko to
the head house of the order in France, and that
it had become forfeited to the crown owing to
the war that was being waged between England
and France. This entry is followed on the
Patent Roll by a copy of the mandate sent to
the preceptor of Locko commanding him and his
successors henceforth to pay the £20 apport to
the master and scholars of King's Hall, Cambridge. This assignment of the apport was reentered in the following November, and again
renewed, during the continuance of the war, in
1351. (fn. 10)
At the conclusion of the war it would appear
probable that arrangements were made whereby
this heavy charge of £20 was transferred, with
the rest of the Lazarite property, to the general
control of the English house of Burton Lazars,
and Locko ceased to exist as a preceptory. At
all events, when that hospital was dissolved by
Henry VIII the property in Spondon township (irrespective of the rectory) was estimated
to be of the annual value of £14 9s. 4d., in
Locko £7 5s., in Borrowash £4 9s. 4d., and
in Chaddesden 11s. 3d.