From ‘A History Of The County Of Wiltshire: Volume 8, Warminster, Westbury and Whorwellsdown Hundreds.’ Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1965.
The manor of WHITBOURNE TEMPLE, which was held in the later Middle Ages by the Hospital of St. John at Wilton, must have formerly belonged to the Knights Templar of Templecombe (Som.). At the Dissolution the Knights Hospitaller of Templecombe, who succeeded to the Templar property there in 1309, (fn.100) were receiving a rent of 6s. 8d. from their Whitbourne property (fn.101), which was paid by the master of the hospital. (fn.102) It is not known when the Templars acquired Whitbourne; they do not seem to have had it in 1185, but members of the Husee family were then mentioned as benefactors, and may have given part of their fee of Little Corsley after that time. (fn.103) Nor is it known when the Templars alienated their land to the hospital in return for the rent of 6s. 8d. The hospital is first known to have held land in Whitbourne in 1270, (fn.104) and enjoyed the estate until the 16th century. (FN.105) Although St. John’s survived the dissolution of chantries and hospitals, (FN.106) part of Whitbourne Temple was for some reason regarded as confiscated land, and several tenements in it were granted to Sir John Thynne in 1548. (fn.107) Thynne obtained a release from the master of the hospital, (fn.108) but does not seem to have regarded his title as good. When the hospital leased the Whitbourne property to John Middlecott for 99 years in 1571, Thynne obtained the whole of it by various assignments, (fn.109) and his descendants seem to have enjoyed it as leaseholders until 1636. In that year Giles Thornburgh, the new master, attempted to take control of the property and brought a chancery suit against Sir Thomas Thynne. (fn.110) This was apparently unsuccessful for the Thynnes continued to hold the whole manor by lease until the 19th century. (fn.111)
Footnotes:
101. Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i. 202; Cal. Pat. 1557-8, 317.
102. Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), ii. 100.
103. B. A. Lees (ed.) Records of the Templars in England (Brit. Acad.), 53, 200.
104. V.C.H. Wilts. iii. 366; see also C.P. 40/181 (1277).
105. Hoare, Mod. Wilts. Branch and Dole, 128-9.
106. V.C.H. Wilts. iii. 366.
107. Cal. Pat. 1548-9, 52.
108. Longleat MS. 6987.
109. Ibid. 6832, 6988.
110. Ibid. 7013.
111. Ibid. Title Deeds, Schedule I; Endowed Char. Wilts. (1908), p. 849.