Sir John Babington Preceptory No.410

Warranted 12th April 1968 - Consecrated 1st November 1968

meets at the Masonic Hall, Ashby Square, Loughborough

on the 1st Tuesday in November and March and the 2nd Monday in May

Rothley Manor and The Babington family

The Manor and Soke of Rothley were granted to the Knights Templar in about 1218 A.D. The Knights built their Temple there in 1231 and effectively held the Manor and Soke until 1540. After a short interval it passed into the hands of the Babington family who had been high Officers in the Order prior to the dissolution, and who then held the Manor until 1845. 1

Six Knights of the Babington family were Knights Hospitaller of the Order of St John of Jerusalem and Officers of the Order of St John. Five of them were on the rolls of the Order during that part of the 16 th century when the Order was removed from Rhodes and established on the Island of Malta. The first of these Knights – Sir John Babington entered the Order between 1520 and 1524 and made rapid progress. In 1525 he was on the roll as “Commander of Dalby and Rothley and Treasurer of St John of England”. In 1527/28 he was Prior of the Order in Ireland and a year later Turcopolier and Commander of Dinemore. He was a very senior officer of the English Tongue of the Order, ranking next to the Prior. He died in 1532 and his effigy, clothed in the robes of the Order, is in Ashover Church, Derbyshire. 2

The other members of the Babington family of Rothley Temple who were members of the Order were Ambrose Babington, Sir John Babington the younger, Sir James Babington, Sir Phillip Babington and Sir Nicholas Babington.

1 Rothley: The Preceptory, by T.H. Fosbroke, trans. Leics. Archeol. Soc (1921/22) 12 , 1-34.

2 The Babingtons, Knights of St John, by J.T. Clarke, Archeologica, (1879) 47 , 89

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