Grewelthorpe
a North Yorkshire Village
Knights Templar
There is good evidence that part of Grewelthorpe was owned by the Knights Templar from the late 1200s up to 1312 passing to the Knights of St. John when Pope Clement disbanded the order because of so called heretical beliefs.
In 1301 it was found that the Abbot of Fountains held of Roger de Mowbray two carucates in “, Growelthorpe “, for l/8th of a knight’,s fee and worth £4 per an., and that Henry Be(au)fiz had one carucate and a half for l/24th of a knight’,s fee and worth £1 per an.In 1303 “, Grouelthorp,”, described as part of the Mowbray fee, was found to contain four carucates, of which ten equalled a knight’,s fee, the Abbot of Fountains holding two and the Templars two or three, though it seems certain from the Templars’, charters that they had six, besides other lands granted to them at different times.
The Templars’, lands included five roods under “,Tunstalhou,”, with other land granted by Aikil de Thorp “, to God, the Blessed Mary and tlie light of the Holy Ghost in the chapel of Penhill”, while Roger de Mowbray had also granted to them “,mairemium”, or wood for building, in his forest of Nidderdale, Malzeard and Masham, for the purpose of erecting their houses of Pennel (Penhill), Cutuna (East Cowton) and Reinhou (?). The Templars’, possessions in Grewelthorpe are perhaps commemorated by the name ‘,Temple Lands’, given to a small field on the south side of the village, while another field called ‘,Mole’, or ‘,Mull’, is possibly a corruption of the place-name ‘,Mulhou’, referred to in one of their charters in the Ribston collection.
There must have been, therefore, at least two manors in Grewelthorpe, one held by Fountains Abbey and tlie other by the Templars. The Abbey manor may be represented by that now belonging to the owner of the Swinton estate, while that of the Templars passed to the Knights of St. John and after the Dissolution to the Good-ricks of Ribston, who are said to have sold all the lands to the tenants but to have retained the “,royalty.”,
The Honour of Kirkby Malzeard and the Chase of Nidderdale,
by Tom S. Gowland.
The Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, Vol. 33/ Pt. 4 1938. Page 362 –, 363
If you want to know more about why the Templars were dissolved follow this link to Wikipedia.
In 1312, under further pressure from King Philip IV of France, Pope Clement V officially disbanded the Order at the Council of Vienne. Clement issued a Papal Bull which granted the lands of the Templars to the Knights Hospitaller, but this was ignored until 1324.
Templar lands and assets were given to the Order of the Hospital of Saint John, a sister military order—,though the English crown held onto some assets until 1338.