Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/601

Rh liberality of Gilbert de Clare, earl of Pembroke, who, almost immediately after the conquest of that country by the English, endowed them with a priory at Kilmainham, near Dublin, which in after years became their chef-lieu. This donation was made in the year 1174. Its property in that country grew gradually in extent, and at the time of the suppression of the laugue of England, in 1346, it consisted of twenty-one cornmanderies, viz:—In the county of Dublin, Kilinainhaim and Cloutarf; in the county of Kildare, Kilbegs, Kilheel, and Tully; in the county of Carlow, Killergy; in that of Meath, Kilinainham-beg and Kilmainham-wood; in that of Louth, Kilsaran; in Down, Ardes; in Waterford, Kilbarry, Killara, Crook, and Mincrioch; in Uork, Morne or Mora; in Tipperary, Clonmel; in Galway, Kinalkin; in Sligo, Teague Temple; and in Wexford, Kilciogan, Bally-Hewk, and Wexford. The latter commandery had been the seat of the grand-priory until it was transferred to Kilmainham. There are no records of the value of this property, most of which had originally belonged to the Templars, and was transferred to the Order of St. John on the suppression of the former fraternity.

The priory of Clerkenwell meanwhile grew apace. Many additions were made in the time of Edward I. Between the years 1274 and 1280 Joseph de Chauncy, the grand-prior, built a chapel for the use of the lord-prior in their house, and William de Henley, who was made prior in 1280, erected a cloister. The buildings went on developing in extent and grandeur until the insurrection of Wat Tyler, in 1381, when the priory was destroyed by fire. Grafton, in his “Chronicle,” says:—“ They went streight to the goodly hospital of Rhodes, called St. John’s beyond Smythfleld and spoyled that and then consumed it with fyre causing the same to burne for the space of seven days after.” At this time, “the building, in its widely-varied decorations, both internally and externally, is said to have contained specimens of the arts both of Europe and Asia, together with a collection of books and rarities the loss of which in a less turbulent age would have been a theme for national lamentation.” The grand-prior himself, Sir Robert Hales, was beheaded by the mob.

The magnificent pile thus ruthlessly destroyed had witnessed