This stone adjacent to the porch of All Saints Church in West Parley was said to have originally stood at Cross Pond on Church Lane. I was struck by the unusual form of the cross roughly carved in relief on its surface.
The cross has wedge shaped arms with straight ends and is known as a cross pattee. It was the form used by the Knights Templar and Hospitaller (the Maltese Cross which is more commonly associated with the Hospitallers appeared in the mid 16th century) A cross pattee used in a religious context is also called a St John’s cross. Whoever carved the marker stone was familiar with the form.
This realisation sent me on a quest to see if I could find a link between West Parley and crusading knights. It didn’t take me too long to find one with the Knights Hospitaller.
Sir Richard Weston inherited the Manor of West Parley from his mother’s brother, William Cammel of Shapwick who died in 1505. William Cammel was the last of the male line of Cammels of Shapwick and a descendant of the de Plecys who had also previously held West Parley.
The family of Sir Richard Weston had links with The Order of St John of Jerusalem (Knights Hospitaller) going back generations. William Weston, his brother, was a member of the Order. William was made Preceptor of Ansty in 1498 and of North Baddesley in 1507. In 1516 Sir Richard signed a three year lease of the preceptories of Baddesley and Mayne. William, who lost a finger at the Seige of Rhodes in 1522, was appointed Turcopolier (commander of light cavalry) the following year and Prior of the Order in England in 1527.
William was not the first Weston to hold the position of Prior. Their uncle John Weston was prior from 1476 to 1489. Two other uncles had been Turcopoliers and a John Weston, Turcopolier (date of death unknown) was one of thirteen ‘bretheren of the house’ buried at the priory of Clerkenwell.
William, who had been in poor health, died on 7 May 1740 shortly after receiving the news that the Order had been dissolved by Henry VIII. Had he lived he would have received a yearly pension of a staggering £1000!
The Order was tenant in chief of the Manor of East Parley but received no income from it. The Valuation of the Spiritualities of 1291 records East Parley as “under value”. The inquis post mortem (IPM) of Robert Rengeburn, esq. gives an explanation as to why.
The IPM shows that Robert was seised of the Manor of East Perlee in fee tail when he died on 6th October 1485. He held the Manor, worth 82s., with the advowson of the free chapel of St. Mary Magdalene there, of the Prior of St. John of Jerusalem in England, by fealty (pledge of allegiance) only.
After dissolution of the order the Manor reverted to the Crown. A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 5 published in 1912 states that “The tithes were in 1561 leased by the Crown to Ludovic Williams for twenty-one years at the rent of 40s., and ten years later the reversion and rent were granted to Henry Lord Scroope to be held by him at a fee farm rent of the same amount.”