The Middleton Accounts of 1526: #43

The next entry in the Middleton household accounts for Sir Henry Willoughby in 1526 was dated 4th August. It was described as a payment to Sir Henry’s brotherhood of Saint Thomas of Canterbury. The amount was 8 pence, which was the equivalent of about £14.71 today.

St Thomas of Canterbury was Thomas à Becket. The fraternity that bore his name has a long connection with the owners of Middleton Hall. It has also had various names throughout its history.

In 1191, at the capture of Acre during the Third Crusade, the Hospitaller Order of St Thomas of Acon was established as a charitable hospital by a chaplain who served the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in London. Initially, this Augustinian Order was based at St Paul’s and acted in the Holy Land. Their main activities were treating sick pilgrims, burying dead crusaders and raising funds for the ransom of Christian captives.

Thomas à Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered in 1170 and in 1173 he was declared a martyr and canonised. At some point between Thomas’ death and 1176, Robert III de Marmion, 2nd Baron Marmion of Tamworth and owner of Middleton, purchased the land and overlordship of the area in London that contained the house where Thomas had been born. Today, this area is where the properties of 85-86 Cheapside front the street but his land extended a considerable distance from the road to include St Mary’s Colechurch and the Mercers’ Hall.

In the 1190s, Thomas à Becket’s sister Agnes and her husband, who were the tenants on the land that had been purchased by Robert III, gifted it to the Order for them to establish a hospital, chapel and headquarters on the site. At that time, that land in London and Middleton were owned by Robert IV de Marmion, 3rd Baron Marmion of Tamworth, and he is known to have made donations to the Order as well.

During the Sixth Crusade (1227-1229), Bishop Peter des Roches, who would subsequently become another owner of Middleton, arrived in the Holy Land to find the hospital of the Order in financial and administrative ruin. He then completely restructured the Order, militarising it and replacing the Augustinian rule with that of the Teutonic Knights. All of the members of this Order subsequently wore a white habit with a red cross that had a white scallop shell over its centre. It was also renamed as the Knights of St Thomas. In 1236, an official papal bull by Pope Gregory IX confirmed its militarisation and gave it international recognition as the only independent English Military Crusading Order.

In 1291, after the fall of Acre and the loss of the Holy Land to the Saracens, the Knights of St Thomas relocated their international base to Limassol in Cyprus. However, within 50 years, dwindling recruitment and finances at the international base meant that the Order increasingly shifted its operations to its wealthier base at the hospital in Cheapside. In doing so, it essentially reverted back to its monastic hospitaller function and Augustinian rule. Their emblem was also revised at this time to a red flowered cross but it still retained the white scallop shell over its centre.

Emblem of the Order of St Thomas of Acon by Bibleprotector, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Over time, the headquarters at Cheapside became very integrated with the City of London’s ruling elite. Of specific note was its relationship with the Mercer’s Company, which was the premier and wealthiest merchant guild in England. They became patrons of the Order and held their guild meetings on the Order’s Cheapside site and used the Order’s chapel for their prayers. It was at this time that the Order evolved again to become a highly notable religious fraternity (or interchangeably brotherhood or guild). Wealthy nobles and merchants were then able pay annual fees to become “brothers” of the Fraternity of St Thomas and in doing so secured spiritual benefits, prayers and burial rights. This Middleton Accounts entry confirms that Sir Henry Willoughby was one of these aristocratic brothers.

As a result of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, in 1538 the Order of St Thomas of Acon was formally dissolved and the site seized by the Crown. The Cheapside site, including its chapel, was then purchased by the Mercers’ Company and became known as the Mercers’ Hall. The buildings were destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, but the Mercers rebuilt it. However, the second hall was destroyed in 1941 during the Blitz. The new Mercers’ Hall and Chapel, still on the same site, opened in 1958 and incorporated some of the features from the earlier versions that had been salvaged.

Further Reading: W. H. Stevenson, Report on the Manuscripts of Lord Middleton, Historical Manuscripts Commission, 1911. p.384.

Author - Debbie Jordan, Middleton Hall Volunteer.

Please consider supporting Middleton Hall Trust by sending us a donation.