granted the forfeited lands to the Order of St. John, on condition that the knights should there establish all the ladies attached to the fraternity.
Philip de Thame, in his report (already referred to in Chapter VII.), states that the institution at Bucklands was at that time a house for fifty sisters. They were entitled to the services of a brother of the Order to act as senesehal, two chaplains, and a lay assistant for their churches. Their property consisted of three manors at Buckland, worth £6; one at Thele, in Devonshire, worth £2; one at Pruneslee, worth £2; and one at Kynemersdon, worth £2 10s. Also a redditus aswus (or rent paid by freeholders) of 90 marks. They further held three churches, one at Pederton, which was worth 50 marks; one at Kynemersdon, worth 20 marks; and one at Bromfeld, worth £10. The report adds that these possessions are not enough for the support of the sisters, and that they have to look for help to friends, and to confraria or charitable collections.
The establishment was suppressed by Henry VIII., and its lands granted to the earl of Essex and James Rockby.
The first introduction of the fraternity into Scotland was due to the generosity and zeal of king David I., who, shortly after his accession to the throne in the year 1124, established a sacred preceptory of the Order of St. John at Torpichen, in Linlithgowshire, which continued to be the chef-lieu of the knights in Scotland until their suppression in the sixteenth century. In the year 1153, just before his death, he confirmed, by a royal charter, the possessions, privileges, and exemptions with which the Order had become endowed in Scotland. He looked with so great favour on this institution, as well as on that of the Temple, that the author of the “Book of Cupar” records that “Sanctus David de præclara militia Templi Hierosolomitani optimos fratres secum retinens eos diebus et noctibus morum suorum fecit custodes.” His successor, Malcolm IV., increased the privileges of the Hospitallers within his kingdom, and incorporated their possessions into a barony freed from most of the imposts levied on the laity. William the Lion also followed in the footsteps of his predecessors, and made sundry additions to the munificent foundation which they had established.
The Order was first introduced into Ireland through the
