Henry VI., and took part with the house of Lancaster in the Wars of the Roses. He was made prisoner at the battle of Tewkesbury in 1471, and put to death in cold blood by order of Edward IV. His near kinsman and predecessor in the bailiwick of Aquila was William Langstrother, who held that rank at a chapter-general which sat at Rome in 1446. Both these dignitaries were buried in the church of St. John at Clerkenwell.
James Heting, or Keating, was deprived of his dignity as grand-prior of Ireland for not hastening to Rhodes when summoned to take part in its defence in 1480.
Thomas Docwa, or Docray, was the second son of Richard I)ooray, of Bradsville, in the county of York. He was present at the siege of Rhodes in 1480. During his priorate, the new establishment at Clerkenwell, to replace that destroyed by Wat Tyler, was completed. Docwra possessed considerable talents in diplomacy, and was very wealthy. He was nearly elected Grand-Master, having only lost the nomination by one vote, when L’Isle Adam was appointed. He died in 1527.
John Rawson was present at the siege of Rhodes in 1522. He was afterwards made Turcopolier, and eventually, at the special request of Henry VIII., appointed grand-prior of Ireland. He died in 1547.
William Weston, grand-prior of England, time of Heury VIII. By an act passed in 1533, it was made lawful for “Viscounts, the Pryour of Seint John of Jerusalem, and Barons to wear in their dublettes or sleveless coates clothe of golde sylver or tynsel” It has already been recorded that it was during the priorate of Weston that Henry VIII. suppressed the langue of England, granting Weston a pension of £1,000 a year. This pension, so liberally allowed to him out of his own property, was not long enjoyed. Unable to bear up against the calamities which had befallen his Order, he died of grief on Ascension Day, 1540, in the very year when his pension was granted. He was buried in the chanoel of St. James’s church, Clerkenwell, where an altar tomb in the architectural style of the age, representing him as an emaciated figure lying upon a winding sheet, was erected over his remains.[1] Weever has thus
- ↑ See illustration of this monument in plate opposite page 571.
