THE KNIGHTS HOSPITALLERS
IN NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
DINGLEY - The Hospitaller Commandery at Dingley
Nestled in the heart of Northamptonshire, the site of Dingley Hall was once home to a Knights Hospitaller commandery, dating back to the reign of King Stephen. Originally comprising around 300 acres, the preceptory was founded with the support of William de Clopton and his wife Emma during the reign of Henry II. It served as a place of hospitality, spiritual life, and military readiness for the Order.
By the late 15th century, Sir Henry Halley was recorded as preceptor (court roll, 18 March 1482), and Sir Giles Russell was the last commander before the dissolution of the order under Henry VIII.
Though much of the medieval structure is now gone, Dingley Hall—now a private residence—still preserves elements of its monastic past. The original tower and porch remain, quietly echoing its former purpose. The hall was significantly rebuilt in the 1550s, with further alterations in the 1680s, and its west wing was removed in 1781–82.
Tucked away behind a medieval brick wall and a modest blue gate stands All Saints Church, built in 1292 by Hugh de Dingele. Once the spiritual heart of the commandery, it stands on the site of an earlier chapel and would have been closely tied to the Hospitallers during their time in Dingley.
Today, while the knights are long gone, the peaceful landscape still hints at a time when this was a place of care, refuge, and devotion.
The Hospitallers according to their reports held the following at Dingley
There is there one messuage (dwelling house) with a garden and crofts, and it is worth 20 shillings.
And two dovecotes, which are worth 13 shillings and 4 pence.
And 300 acres of land, at a price per acre of 6 pence.
Sum: 7 pounds 10 shillings.
And from meadows and pastures per year: 9 shillings.
And there likewise from fixed rent and pensions per year: 40 marks.
And also there a confraternity (brotherhood fund), according to the will of the donors: 6 marks.
And one windmill, which is worth per year: 10 shillings.
And from the livestock of the household per year: 24 shillings.
And from the perquisites of the courts per year: 20 shillings.
The total sum of receipts and profits of the said bailiwick:
118 marks, 10 shillings, and 8 pence.
Learn more about the Commandery of Dingley on our blog here
BLAKESLEY - (Blacolneselee)
In the Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535, Blakesley is recorded as a camera — a lesser estate — of the Knights Hospitaller. The manor itself had been granted to the Order during the 13th century. Evidence of the medieval presence remains visible today: Priory Farm retains a medieval roof structure, and Blakesley Hall is also believed to contain remnants from that period. The advowson (the right to appoint the parish priest) of the Church of St Mary was given to the Hospitaller commandery at Melchbourne. The Valor Ecclesiasticus provides the following details about the estate's income and holdings:
Blacolneslee.—There is one manse, 3 carucates of land, 4 acres of Blacolnes pasture, 3 acres of meadow, 100 s. annual rent, and the church for its own use. They are let to the farm by the Prior and brothers, from year to year, for 1 mark.
BRADDEN
Bradden and the Knights Hospitaller
Although little is known about the Knights Hospitaller’s presence in Bradden, historical records confirm they held a manor in the village. The exact location is uncertain, but Bradden House, to the southwest, is widely believed to stand on the site of the original Hospitaller manor, and it retains elements of late medieval architecture.
Nearby earthworks offer further clues. A long rectangular area—partly enclosed by a 1.5-metre-high bank and an outer ditch—features an uneven interior and terracing, which may point to a former garden or manorial site. While the remains may belong to a different medieval manor, they could also mark the original location of the Hospitaller estate in Bradden.
RUSHTON
Rushton: The Last Grand Master’s Resting Place
Just seven miles east of Dingley lies Rushton, a village with deep connections to Sir Thomas Tresham, the last Grand Master (or Lord Prior) of the Knights Hospitallers in England. After Queen Mary temporarily restored the order, it faced a second dissolution in 1558 under Queen Elizabeth I. Sir Thomas Tresham, who had been knighted in 1524, died in 1559 and was laid to rest in All Saints Church in Rushton. His Effigy can be found in the Church,
A short distance down from the Church, can be found Rushton’s mysterious Triangular Lodge. Located within the manor of Rushton Hall, the lodge is a striking testament to Tresham’s religious devotion and fascination with symbolism. The number three, representing the Holy Trinity, dominates the structure: it has three walls, each 33 feet long, three triangular windows per side, three gargoyles, and three floors. Inscriptions on the exterior quote Latin biblical passages, reinforcing the religious significance of the design.
The Effigy of Sir Thomas Tresham - The Last Grand Master of the Order upon its final disollution
GUILSBOROUGH
In 1338, the Knights Hospitaller established a camera (a small administrative estate) in Guilsborough. The advowson of the Church of St Etheldreda was appropriated to the Order’s commandery at Dingley. According to the Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535, the camera comprised:
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One manse (a house with land),
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Two carucates of arable land (roughly 240 acres),
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20 acres of meadow,
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An annual rent income of 60 shillings,
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And the church of Guilsborough, along with the church of Ravensthorpe, held for the Order’s own use.
These holdings were leased out from year to year at the Prior’s discretion, bringing in 4 marks annually. However, the net annual profit from the camera was recorded as 3 marks.
The Knights Hospitaller in Guilsborough
Guilsborough had a documented connection with the Knights Hospitaller of St John of Jerusalem by the mid-13th century. The Order held rights in the parish church and later administered a small local estate, or camera, at Guilsborough. A camera was an income-producing property of the Order rather than necessarily a full preceptory with a resident community.
The clearest medieval description comes from the Hospitaller survey of 1338, compiled under Prior Philip de Thame. It records the Camera de Gildisburgh, in Northamptonshire, as comprising:
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one messuage — a house or estate dwelling with its yard and associated buildings;
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two carucates of land — roughly two ploughlands, though medieval acreage varied;
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twenty acres of meadow;
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60 shillings of annual rent;
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Guilsborough church, appropriated to the Order’s own use;
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Ravensthorpe church, also appropriated to the Order’s own use.
These holdings were let out “at farm” from year to year, at the will of the Prior and brethren, for four marks annually, equivalent to £2 13s. 4d.
The Hospitallers’ connection with Guilsborough predates the 1338 survey. In the episcopal records of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, covering the years 1235–1253, the Hospitallers appear as patrons of Guilsborough church. A chaplain named Hugh was instituted as perpetual vicar after being presented by Brother T. de Nussa, Prior of the Hospital of Jerusalem in England. The same records show Hospitaller patronage at nearby Ravensthorpe, where Walter de Swavesheia was instituted.
The exact location of the Hospitaller messuage at Guilsborough has not yet been identified. The 1338 record confirms that such a dwelling or estate centre existed, but it does not give a street, field name, boundary description, or map reference. Its lands may have included scattered open-field strips and meadow, rather than a single compact block. Likely areas for further investigation include land historically associated with the church, rectory, glebe, manor, or later tithe-free holdings.
Guilsborough should therefore be understood as a small Hospitaller estate and ecclesiastical holding, linked administratively to the English priory of the Order. It was not necessarily a major staffed commandery, but it formed part of the Order’s wider Northamptonshire network of land, rents, churches and agricultural income. Its known medieval figures include Brother T. de Nussa, Hugh the chaplain, Walter de Swavesheia, and later Prior Philip de Thame, whose 1338 survey preserves the fullest account of the Guilsborough camera.
TOWCESTER -
In the mid-12th century, Roger de Clare, Earl of Hertford, granted Towcester Mill to the Templars. Having succeeded to the title in 1152, Roger detached the manor from the crown and gifted the mill to the order, likely connecting it to the nearby Bradden Manor Preceptory, a Templar base just a few miles away.
Such donations were common at the time — part spiritual offering, part political strategy — and helped fund the Templars’ missions in the Holy Land. Though little physical trace remains, the legacy of this medieval transaction links Towcester to the wider network of Templar influence across England.
Today, Towcester Mill stands as a reminder of the town’s layered past — from noble patronage to the enduring mythos of the Templars
HARRINGTON - Messuage
Tucked just northwest of the main street in the village of Harrington, Northamptonshire, lies a remarkable piece of medieval history known as The Falls. Set on gently sloping ground, this site was once home to the manor house of Harrington, and its remnants — particularly the fishponds — are among the best-preserved medieval features in the county.
From 1288 until the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the manor was held by the Knights Hospitallers, a military and religious order renowned for their estates across Europe. It’s believed that the Hospitallers were responsible for constructing the complex system of three large ponds and water channels found at the site, carefully engineered to support medieval fish farming.
Fed by a combination of a main stream running through the valley and several natural springs from the hillside, these ponds would have been stocked with eel, bream, pike, and perch — a vital food source for the manor and possibly even for trade.
Today, The Falls forms part of Falls Farm and is protected as a listed archaeological site, offering a fascinating glimpse into the rural life and resource management of a medieval religious order.
The The Valor ecclesiasticus of 1535 describes Harrington value as below
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Hetherington.—There is one well-built manor house there, whose herbage and fruit are worth per annum - 7 Shillings (84 Pence)
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And two dovecotes are worth - 10 Shillings (120 Pence)
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Also five carucates of land containing five acres of land, the price of each of which is eighty d - £17 6s. 8d
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And thirty acres of meadow, the price of an acre two s. - £3 (60 Shillings)
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And of the rent of the assize of both freemen and natives - £20 13s. 4d
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Works and customs are worth per annum - £5 (100 Shillings)
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Pleas and purchases of the courts are worth - £2 10s (50 Shillings)
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Pasture there is worth - 180 Pence
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And a profitable stallion is worth twenty cows - £3 (60 Shillings)
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And a profitable two-toothed horse used to be worth fifteen marks per annum, and now nothing, because the lord king seizes all the wool to help his war. -
Total amount received and profit tell the chamber = £53. 2s
The Expenditures include the following,
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From there, for the expenses of the provost, the reaper, the day, the woodward, and others of the family who came to him, twenty-six quarters of wheat and rye, the price of a quarter being two hundred and six d. - 8 pounds and 15 shillings
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And in beer to be brewed, 26 quarters of brewed dragee, the price of a quarter is 2 s. - 2 pounds and 12 shillings
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And for the kitchen expenses - 1 pound and 15 shillings (£1 15s)
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And for all the wages, half a mark to each - £1 6s 8d
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And in the stipends of the chaplain celebrating in the chapel, for the souls of the founders of the said chamber, because they are not at the table - 3 pounds and 7 shillings (£3 7s)
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And in one steward holding the courts and carrying on the business of the house - 1 pound (£1)
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The sum of all expenses and solutions - 13 pounds, 15 shillings, and 4 pence
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Sum of Value. — And thus remain to be paid to the Treasury for the burdens to be borne - £39 6s 8d
From these figures we can see that Harrington was a profitable manor for Hospitallers annually.
The Original Manor House & Gardens Earthworks can still be easily made out
The original layout of the manor and Gardens
The Earthworks of the three Medieval fishponds are still easily identifiable adjacent to the original manor house in the bottom field
The post medieval garden design or "the steps" as they were known - looking up from the site of the original manor house
RAVENSTHORPE - St Dennys Church
The 1388 Report of the Hospitallers links the church at Ravensthorpe with Guilsborough as "Gildisburgh — There is there one messuage (dwelling) with two ploughlands of land, 20 acres of meadow, producing 9 shillings of annual income, and the church for their own use, and also the church of Ravensthorpe for their own use; and they are let to farm from year to year at the will of the Prior, by the Prior and brothers, for 4 marks"
So the Knights Hospitallers would have held the Advowson of the church here and appointed priest, and received tithes from the Church. One of these Priest is commenorated in a stained glass window, with the Hospitallers White Maltese cross Symbol, and the name of a priest Wim (Or William) Dykyns
PASSENHAM - (Water) Mill
The Knights Hospitallers and Passenham Watermill
Passenham’s watermill has medieval origins. A mill was recorded here in the Domesday Survey of 1086, when Passenham was a royal manor beside the River Great Ouse.
By the early 12th century, the mill had passed into the hands of the Knights Hospitallers. It appears to have been granted to them by Letitia de Ferrers during the reign of Henry I between 1100 and 1135. Her gift was later confirmed, around 1170, by William de Ferrers, who referred specifically to “a mill at Passenham.”
At that time, the mill was held hereditarily by Richard Baligan, who paid the Hospitallers an annual rent of 2 marks. This suggests the mill was not simply a local working building, but part of a wider manorial and rental economy controlled by the order.
The mill continued to appear in 13th-century records. In 1243, a legal fine referred to a half-share, or moiety, of a mill at Passenham. Another Hospitaller record mentions annual rent from a watermill and fifteen acres of land held by John Baligan in the village.
The medieval watermill probably stood close to the River Great Ouse and its mill race, on or near the later Passenham Mill site. It appears to have remained in use into the later medieval period, before later records pick up its post-medieval history. By the 19th and early 20th centuries it was still operating with waterwheels and millstones, but it ceased working around 1920.
Today, the former mill site survives as Passenham Mill cottages, a residential property beside the Great Ouse, preserving the location of one of Passenham’s most important medieval economic assets.
HARGRAVE - All Hallows Church
Nestled in the Northamptonshire countryside, the parish church of All Hallows (All Saints) in Hargrave holds a fascinating medieval connection to one of Europe’s most famous military orders: the Knights Hospitallers.
At the foundation of Melchbourne Preceptory in the 12th century, the Hospitallers were endowed not only with the manor and church at Melchbourne but also with a network of parish churches — including Hargrave. While the knights never established a preceptory in the village itself, they held the advowson of the church. This meant they had the right to appoint rectors and received the income from tithes, forming an important part of the order’s regional support network.
The church building itself dates back to the late 12th and early 13th centuries, a period that aligns perfectly with the Hospitallers’ acquisition of the living. Through the medieval period, successive rectors were appointed under the oversight of the Melchbourne Preceptory, ensuring the church’s spiritual and economic role contributed to the order’s mission.
The Hospitallers’ connection to Hargrave lasted until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s, when the Crown seized monastic and knightly lands across England. Today, All Hallows Church stands as a reminder of this intriguing link between a quiet Northamptonshire village and one of the most powerful religious military orders of the Middle Ages.
ARTHINGWORTH Manor
The Knights Hospitallers and Arthingworth Manor
Arthingworth Manor has a credible medieval association with the Knights Hospitallers, although the nature of that link needs careful distinction.
The clearest evidence relates to the manor of Arthingworth as a medieval estate. Records for nearby Harrington state that the manor there was granted to the Order of St John in 1231 by John Montague, and also note that the Hospitallers owned the nearby manor of Arthingworth. This places Arthingworth within a small but significant Hospitaller landscape in north Northamptonshire, alongside Harrington and the nearby preceptory of Dingley.
Dingley provides the strongest local context. By the 14th century, it was an established Hospitaller preceptory, with land, rents, meadows, pastures, a chapel, dovecotes, a windmill and a resident preceptor. Arthingworth was therefore probably not an independent Hospitaller house, but rather part of the Order’s wider local estate network, contributing income, rents or produce to support Hospitaller administration and activity.
The link with the Manor House is more plausible than proven. The present Old Manor at Arthingworth is largely an 18th-century building, constructed long after the Hospitallers’ medieval ownership, and should not be described as a Hospitaller house. However, Historic England notes traces of earlier stonework within the later ruins, and a nearby moated earthwork has been identified as the probable site of the medieval manor house. If this was the chief house of the medieval manor, and if the Hospitallers held Arthingworth at that time, then the earlier manor-house site may have formed part of their estate.
In short, the Hospitaller connection to the manor of Arthingworth is well founded. A connection to an earlier manor-house site is plausible. A direct link to the surviving 18th-century Manor House, however, should be understood as indirect: the later house stands within a landscape shaped by the medieval manor, but it is not itself a Hospitaller building.
No reliable evidence has yet been identified to show that Arthingworth Manor was held by the Knights Templar. Its stronger and more defensible medieval association is with the Knights Hospitallers.
BRAYBROOKE
The Knights Hospitallers, the Order of St Lazarus, and Medieval Braybrooke
Braybrooke, in medieval Northamptonshire, was a small but important manorial settlement with links to two of the great religious orders of the Middle Ages: the Knights Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem and the Order of St Lazarus of Burton Lazars.
At the heart of the village stood All Saints Church, the parish church of Braybrooke. The present building preserves medieval work from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, with an earlier 12th-century font suggesting that Christian worship on the site began before much of the surviving structure was built. In the Middle Ages, All Saints would have served the whole parish for ordinary worship, baptism, burial, and the spiritual life of the village.
The Order of St Lazarus had a financial connection with the church. In the Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535, the hospital of Burton Lazars is recorded as receiving an annual pension from the church of Braybrooke. The amount was 26s 8d, equal to two marks. This does not necessarily mean that the Order of St Lazarus owned All Saints or held the advowson, but it does show that they had a recognised right to income from the church’s revenues.
The Hospitaller connection was different. Their link appears to have been through the manor known as West Hall Fee. In 1402, the Inquisition Post Mortem of Anne, widow of Thomas Latimer Bochard, recorded that she held Braybrooke Castle and also “Westhallfee” manor with the advowson. Westhallfee was held of the Prior of St John of Jerusalem in England by a rent of 12d, and was valued at 10 marks a year. This shows that the Knights Hospitallers were feudal overlords of West Hall Fee, the manor to which the advowson of Braybrooke church was attached.
There was also a chapel associated with West Hall. Medieval records refer to the Chapel of West Hall, also called the Chapel of the Blessed Virgin on the Green. It was probably founded in the 13th century, when Peter de Raley was permitted to have a chapel in his own ground at Braybrooke for himself and his household, excluding other parishioners. Later records describe a chapel or chantry called Westhalse as being “of the Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem.” This may have been a small private or manorial chapel connected with West Hall Fee. It may have stood separately near a former green, or possibly functioned as a chapel or chantry space associated with the parish church; the exact site has not yet been identified.
Braybrooke itself contained two medieval manorial interests. The better-known East Hall Fee is identified with Braybrooke Castle, a moated manorial site on the eastern side of the village. In the early 14th century, Thomas de Latimer was granted licence to strengthen his manor house at Braybrooke, and the surviving earthworks still show the remains of the moated manor, enclosures, fishponds, water-control features, crofts and settlement remains.
West Hall Fee was a separate manor or fee within Braybrooke. It was later brought into the Latimer lordship, and by 1402 it carried the advowson of All Saints Church. Its precise location is still uncertain, but the name suggests a manorial centre west of East Hall Fee. The lost Chapel of West Hall and the field-name Maudcroft or Madcraft, said to be connected with Maud Swinnerton, lady of West Hall Fee, may preserve important clues to its former position.
The nearby Hospitaller commandery of Dingley is highly relevant. Dingley was the principal Knights Hospitaller house in this part of Northamptonshire, founded in the 12th century and later merged with Battisford in 1461. Although the surviving Braybrooke evidence names the Prior of St John of Jerusalem in England rather than Dingley directly, it is reasonable to consider whether the Hospitaller rights at West Hall Fee were administered through, or connected with, the nearby commandery at Dingley. This still requires further documentary proof.
Medieval Braybrooke was therefore not a Hospitaller commandery or a Lazarite house in its own right. Instead, it was a manorial village where several religious and lordly interests overlapped. The Latimer family held the main manorial power; the Hospitallers had overlordship connected with West Hall Fee and its chapel or chantry; and the Order of St Lazarus received a pension from the parish church. Together, these records show how even a small medieval village could be linked into the wider religious, military and charitable networks of medieval England.
COSGROVE
Although no preceptory was established at Cosgrove, the manor became a significant Hospitaller estate and remained under their control for more than three centuries.
The Order's connection with Cosgrove began before 1221, when Robert Revell, lord of part of the manor, granted the advowson of the parish church to the Knights Hospitallers. The gift was subsequently confirmed by his son, Hugh Revell, reflecting the family's support for the Order and the wider crusading movement. Over the following decades the Hospitallers steadily increased their holdings, acquiring agricultural land, rents and manorial rights until they were recognised as one of the Lords of the Manor.
By the late thirteenth century the Hospitallers held at least six virgates of land in Cosgrove, together with meadow, tenant holdings and the right to appoint the parish priest. Their authority extended beyond agriculture; they exercised manorial jurisdiction over their tenants, who attended the Hospitallers' court at nearby Stony Stratford. Through these rights the Order became an integral part of the administration and economy of medieval Cosgrove.
Unlike the great Hospitaller preceptories at places such as Dingley, Cosgrove was not home to a resident community of knights. Instead, the estate was managed by officials including a bailiff or steward, who oversaw the collection of rents, the management of farmland and the administration of the manor on behalf of the English Priory. The Prior and senior brethren would have visited periodically, while the day-to-day life of the manor centred on local tenants, clergy and estate officers.
The Hospitallers' presence at Cosgrove was unaffected by the suppression of the Knights Templar in 1312. Although many former Templar estates elsewhere passed into Hospitaller hands, Cosgrove had already belonged to the Order for nearly a century and continued as one of its established manorial estates.
This long association came to an end during the Dissolution under Henry VIII. In 1540 the Hospitallers' English possessions, including Cosgrove, were seized by the Crown and subsequently granted to Sir Ralph Sadler. Although the Order briefly recovered its English estates during the reign of Mary I, the restoration proved short-lived, and following the accession of Elizabeth I the manor permanently passed into secular ownership.
Today, little survives above ground to indicate the Hospitallers' centuries-long stewardship of Cosgrove. The house now known as The Priory is a seventeenth-century building rather than a medieval religious house, although its name almost certainly preserves the memory of the Order's former manor. The parish church of St Peter and St Paul, whose advowson was granted to the Hospitallers in the early thirteenth century, remains the most enduring witness to their presence. Together with surviving documentary evidence of manorial courts, landholdings and estate administration, it provides a lasting reminder of the important role the Knights Hospitallers played in shaping the medieval history of Cosgrove.
WELFORD - Messuage
The Knights Hospitallers of St John held a small estate at Welford in Northamptonshire that had previously belonged to the Knights Templar. This was not a preceptory or religious house, but an income-producing agricultural property within the wider medieval village landscape.
The clearest surviving evidence comes from the early fourteenth-century rental of former Templar lands, SC 12/13/47. At Welford, the Templars received rent from Hugh Seriaunt and William Seriaunt, who jointly held one messuage and one virgate of land. They paid 18 pence at the feast of the Annunciation and another 18 pence at Michaelmas, giving a total annual rent of 3 shillings. The record therefore suggests an ordinary farm holding consisting of a house site or homestead within the village and arable strips distributed through Welford's open fields.
Research into Templar patronage confirms that the Order held one virgate at Welford, matching closely with the later rental. The Welford estate lay within the wider feudal influence of the Mowbray honour, and the Mowbray family were important patrons of the military orders. However, the surviving evidence presently examined does not allow the original donor of the Welford virgate to be identified with complete certainty, and it would be unsafe to attribute the gift to a particular member of the Mowbray or Wyvill families without the original charter.
Following the suppression of the Knights Templar, Pope Clement V assigned Templar properties to the Knights Hospitaller in 1312. In England the transfer was complicated and gradual, but much of the former Templar estate had passed into Hospitaller control during the following decades. The Welford holding should therefore be understood as part of this wider inheritance of former Templar property.
There is no evidence that a community of Hospitaller knights or brothers was permanently resident at Welford. The property was far more likely managed as a rented agricultural holding, with local tenants providing income to the Order. Hugh and William Seriaunt are the only securely identifiable medieval occupants presently associated with the property, although they appear in the Templar rental rather than in a later Hospitaller tenancy list.
The exact site of the Hospitaller holding has not been identified. Medieval Welford was once larger than the surviving village and probably included three parallel street lines. Archaeological remains west of modern West Street include hollow-ways, closes and possible former house sites belonging to the shrunken medieval settlement. This deserted western settlement zone is therefore a plausible location for a medieval messuage, although there is currently no documentary evidence linking the Hospitaller property directly to one particular plot.
The former Templar and later Hospitaller holding at Welford was therefore modest but historically significant: a single farmstead and its associated arable land, occupied by local tenants and incorporated into the wider economic network that supported the military orders. Unlike the great preceptories of the Templars and Hospitallers, Welford represents the smaller rural properties whose rents collectively helped finance the work of the Orders in England and overseas.
ALDWINKLE - Messuage
LONG BUCKBY - Two Messuages
FORMERLY KNIGHT TEMPLAR HOLDING
Long Buckby in Northamptonshire has an important, though often overlooked, connection with the medieval military religious orders of the Knights Templar and the Knights Hospitaller. The surviving evidence shows that the Templars held a small agricultural estate at Buckby, now Long Buckby, consisting of two messuages and two virgates of land. This holding was later associated with the Hospitallers and may have formed part of the small manor or estate later absorbed into Chokes Manor after 1558.
The key record is SC 12/13/47, a summary of rents from former Templar lands in Northamptonshire from the first year of Edward II. Under Buckebi, the roll records William Russell and William Garry as tenants of:
“ij mes’ ij virgat’ terre” — two messuages and two virgates of land.
They paid 9s 10½d annually, divided between the usual rent terms of the year. A messuage meant a dwelling house with its yard, outbuildings and associated plot, while a virgate was a customary unit of arable land. The exact acreage varied, but two virgates could represent a substantial holding, probably two farmsteads with their attached strips, rights of pasture and other agricultural privileges.
This was not a Templar preceptory or commandery. There is no evidence of a Templar chapel, manor house, or resident community of brothers at Long Buckby. Instead, the estate appears to have been one of many small income-producing properties held across Northamptonshire. The same rental lists Templar lands and rents at places including Welford, Cosgrove, Furtho, Alderton, Shutlanger, Stoke Bruerne, Great Doddington, Flore, Harpole, Bradden and others. Long Buckby was therefore part of a wider network of Templar estates, probably administered from a larger regional centre.
The origin of the Long Buckby holding appears to lie in the older Fitz-Alfred / Mortain estate. In 1066 the manor was held by Turbern and Alric, and by 1086 it was held by Alfred from the Count of Mortain. The later estate was associated with William Fitz-Alfred, and it is likely that land from this manorial holding was granted to the Templars or, possibly, to the Hospitallers. After the suppression of the Templars in the early fourteenth century, their lands generally passed to the Knights Hospitaller of St John of Jerusalem, explaining the later Hospitaller connection at Long Buckby.
There was also a separate Hospitaller interest at Buckby before the Templars were dissolved. In 1293, Simon de Thorp is recorded as granting the Hospitallers either 100s rent in Buckby or, in another version of the record, a messuage and three and a half virgates of land. This shows that the Hospitallers already had an estate interest at Buckby before they received former Templar properties. It is therefore possible that two related military-order holdings existed in the same area: one Templar, later transferred to the Hospitallers, and another held by the Hospitallers in their own right.
A strong working theory places this estate in or near Murcott, a medieval settlement west of Long Buckby. Murcott was not simply a later farm-name, but a real medieval settlement with houses, closes, crofts, open-field land and possible water-management features. Later evidence suggests that Murcott tenants were incorporated into Chokes Manor, and the former Hospitaller manor at Long Buckby was probably also absorbed into Chokes Manor after 1558. This makes Murcott a strong candidate for the location of the former Templar/Hospitaller holding.
The sequence may therefore have been as follows: an early Mortain/Fitz-Alfred estate at Buckby or Murcott was granted to the military orders; the Templars held two messuages and two virgates there, leased to William Russell and William Garry; after the suppression of the Templars, the holding passed into Hospitaller hands; and after the final loss of Hospitaller lands in England, the estate was absorbed into Chokes Manor.
At present, the Murcott identification remains a strong but unproven hypothesis. The medieval rental calls the place Buckby, not Murcott, and no surviving record yet names William Russell or William Garry specifically as tenants in Murcott. However, because Murcott was often treated administratively as part of Long Buckby, the absence of the name is not conclusive. The most important records still to examine are the Dissolution account of the Hospitaller manor, the 1484 rental, and the 1590/1591 survey of Chokes Manor. These may reveal whether the former Hospitaller lands lay among the Murcott tenants later absorbed into Chokes Manor.
The evidence therefore points to Long Buckby as a genuine but modest Templar estate, later connected with the Hospitallers. Its tenants, William Russell and William Garry, provide rare personal names for those who actually occupied and farmed the land. Murcott remains the most promising location for the estate on the ground, especially if the former Hospitaller manor was indeed folded into Chokes Manor after 1558.
WINWICK - Two Messuages
(GREAT) DODDINGTON - Watermill
FORMERLY KNIGHT TEMPLAR HOLDING
Great Doddington Watermill
The Knights Templar owned a valuable watermill at Great Doddington by the late thirteenth century, making it one of the most profitable estates held by the Order in Northamptonshire.
The earliest known reference appears in the Templar rental compiled after the suppression of the Order in 1308. It records that Thomas, son of John (Thomas filius Johannis) leased one watermill, one holm of meadow and two acres of land at Great Doddington, paying an annual rent of 53 shillings and 4 pence—one of the highest recorded rents from any former Templar property in the county. The inclusion of riverside meadow and adjoining land demonstrates that the lease comprised a complete milling enterprise rather than simply the mill building itself.
The original benefactor who granted the mill to the Knights Templar has not yet been identified. Although the Order was established in England by the 1120s and acquired estates across Northamptonshire throughout the twelfth century, no surviving charter has yet been discovered recording the donation of the Great Doddington mill. It was almost certainly acquired before the end of the thirteenth century and remained in Templar ownership until the Order's suppression in 1308, when its estates passed to the Knights Hospitaller.
The medieval mill is believed to have stood on the site of the present-day Hardwater Mill, on the River Nene. Documentary evidence records only a single medieval watermill at Great Doddington, while Historic England confirms that the surviving mill retains its historic mill race beneath the present building, indicating centuries of continuous occupation on the same site. Medieval records also refer to a "Mill of Hepdewath" associated with Barnard's Manor, and this may represent an earlier name for the same mill, although this connection has yet to be conclusively proven.
Today, the former Templar mill survives as Hardwater Mill, a Grade II listed building on Hardwater Road, Great Doddington (NN29 7TD). Although the present structure dates largely from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it almost certainly occupies the site where Thomas, son of John, operated the Knights Templar's mill more than seven hundred years ago, preserving one of the few identifiable industrial sites associated with the Order's medieval estates in Northamptonshire.
BARTON SEAGRAVE - Messuage
FORMERLY KNIGHT TEMPLAR HOLDING
The Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller at Barton Hanred
Barton Hanred, now absorbed into the wider modern parish of Barton Seagrave near Kettering, preserves a small but important link with the medieval military orders. Although there was no Templar preceptory or Hospitaller commandery at Barton, surviving records show that both the Knights Templar and later the Knights Hospitaller held land there.
The key evidence comes from a former Templar rental preserved as TNA SC 12/13/47, a summary of rents from Templar lands in Northamptonshire in the first year of Edward II. Under “Barton Hanneradde”, identifiable as Barton Hanred, the roll records Peter Humfret holding one messuage and one virgate of land, for which he paid 10 shillings yearly.
A messuage was a dwelling house or farmstead, usually including its yard, outbuildings and attached plot. A virgate was a customary unit of land, varying by manor, but often treated as a substantial peasant or tenant holding. The Templar estate at Barton Hanred was therefore not simply a rent-charge or a field strip: it was a small agricultural tenement, probably consisting of a house or farmstead with open-field land attached.
The name of the tenant is significant. Peter Humfret, or Humfrey, appears in the Templar rental at Barton Hanred, and the Humfrey family later became closely associated with Barton Hanred. Later records show the Humphrey or Umfrey family as long-settled in the area, suggesting that Peter may have belonged to an established local line whose connection with Barton reached back into the Templar period. This does not yet prove a continuous family descent from Peter Humfret, but it gives an important direction for further research.
After the suppression of the Templars in the early fourteenth century, many of their lands passed to the Knights Hospitaller, the Order of St John of Jerusalem. At Barton, the Hospitaller evidence is especially interesting. The Victoria County History records that the Priory of St John of Jerusalem held lands in Barton, some of which were probably formerly held by the Templars. It also records that in 1292, William de Barton, chaplain, granted the Hospitallers one messuage and one virgate of land in Barton.
This creates an important research question. The Templar rental records one messuage and one virgate at Barton Hanred held by Peter Humfret, while the Hospitaller record describes one messuage and one virgate granted by William de Barton. The similarity is striking, but the two records cannot yet be assumed to describe the same property. William de Barton’s grant was made before the Templars were dissolved, so it may have been a separate Hospitaller acquisition rather than former Templar land. Alternatively, the later Hospitaller estate at Barton may have combined both a direct Hospitaller grant and former Templar land after 1312.
William de Barton is described as a chaplain, meaning he was a cleric. However, the surviving summary does not say where he served. He may have been attached to a parish church, chapel, household, or local religious foundation. The wording of the grant suggests that the messuage and virgate were probably his own land or tenement to give, rather than parish church land, but this should be confirmed from the original inquisition ad quod damnum behind the grant.
The Hospitaller presence at Barton Hanred was not limited to passive landholding. The Prior of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem in England also held a view of frankpledge for his tenants of Barton Hanred, at Glapthorn. A view of frankpledge was a local jurisdictional right: a court or legal assembly through which tenants were presented, local order was maintained, and minor offences or obligations could be dealt with. This means the Hospitallers had recognised tenants at Barton Hanred who were attached to a wider Hospitaller jurisdictional court held at Glapthorn, near Oundle.
This is important because it shows that Barton Hanred was not simply a place where the Hospitallers collected a small rent. Their tenants there formed part of a legal and administrative structure. The Barton Hanred tenants may have owed suit to the Hospitaller court at Glapthorn, suggesting that the Order of St John exercised both economic and jurisdictional influence in this part of Northamptonshire.
The likely landscape context is the medieval manor of Barton Hanred, now represented by the moated earthworks and shrunken settlement remains west of modern Barton Seagrave. Historic England records two moated enclosures, fishponds, water channels and shrunken medieval village remains in this area. The Northamptonshire Historic Environment Record identifies the southern moat as the likely site of the manor of Barton Hanred.
Peter Humfret’s Templar messuage was probably not the moated manor house itself. It is more likely to have been one of the ordinary tenant farmsteads belonging to the Barton Hanred manorial landscape, with its virgate of land held in the surrounding open fields. The surviving earthworks near the moated site include traces of the medieval settlement, and these may represent the wider village environment in which such tenant messuages once stood.
The evidence therefore supports a careful conclusion. The Knights Templar held a small estate at Barton Hanred, consisting of one messuage and one virgate of land, leased to Peter Humfret for 10 shillings a year. The Knights Hospitaller later held lands in Barton, including a messuage and virgate granted by William de Barton, chaplain, in 1292, and they exercised a view of frankpledge for their Barton Hanred tenants at Glapthorn. The overlap between the Templar and Hospitaller holdings is highly suggestive, but the exact relationship between Peter Humfret’s Templar tenancy and William de Barton’s Hospitaller grant still requires confirmation from the original inquisition and later Hospitaller records.
Today, Barton Hanred survives not as a separate village name, but within the historic landscape of Barton Seagrave. Its moats, fishponds and shrunken medieval village remains preserve the setting in which the Templars and Hospitallers once held land, collected rents, and administered tenants. The record is small, but it opens a valuable window onto how the military orders operated away from their great preceptories: through modest rural tenements, local families, and scattered manorial rights embedded within the everyday life of medieval Northamptonshire.
FLORE - Watermill
FORMERLY KNIGHT TEMPLAR HOLDING
One of the most valuable possessions held by the Knights Templar in Flore was a watermill known as Bottlemill. Standing beside the River Nene on the southern edge of the village, it formed part of the Order's Northamptonshire estate and provided a steady income from the grinding of grain.
Flore was already an important settlement when it was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, which lists two watermills in the village, demonstrating the long-standing importance of milling to the local economy.
By the late thirteenth century, one of these mills belonged to the Knights Templar. A surviving medieval rental records:
Philip of Gayton, for one mill called Bottlemill (molendinum quod dicitur Bottelemulle), pays an annual rent of 18 shillings.
This is the earliest known reference to Bottlemill by name. Philip, described as being "of Gayton", was almost certainly the tenant rather than the owner, leasing the mill from the Templars in return for an annual rent.
Unfortunately, no surviving medieval charter has yet been identified recording when the Templars acquired Bottlemill or who donated it to the Order. Like many Templar estates, it was probably received through the generosity of a local Norman lord during the twelfth century, but the original benefactor remains unknown.
Following the suppression of the Knights Templar in 1308, the mill passed, with the rest of the Order's English estates, into the hands of the Knights Hospitaller.
Where was Bottlemill?
Although the medieval mill has disappeared, its location can still be identified with reasonable confidence. Historic maps and surviving earthworks place the later Flore Mill immediately south of the village, beside the River Nene, where a mill pond and engineered mill leat are still visible in the landscape. Local tradition records that this was one of the two Domesday mills, making it the strongest candidate for the site of the Templars' Bottlemill.
Today, nothing of the medieval buildings survives above ground, but the earthworks around the former mill preserve the location of one of the Knights Templar's most important economic assets in Northamptonshire—a working watermill that helped support the Order's estates over seven centuries ago.
THRAPSTONE - Messuage
WANSFORD - Messuage
