The Lords of Tatton & Credits/Links
Page 5 of 5 / Press for 1
The Lords of Tatton: -The Moiety held by the Order of the Knights of St John Hospitaller:-
Early Tattons Overview
The ancient family line of Tatton (see page 4) dating from 1186 took their name from the village & surrounding pastures named Tatton, which was part of the barony of Halton. The village has since disappeared from the maps, but history records that the line of Tatton continued through Robert de Tatton of Wythenshaw, who was a grantee of lands there in 1297. (see page 1). According to Ormerod (vol3 p604), Alice, daughter & heiress of William de Massey brought the estate to Robert de Tatton, the grandson & third in that line (1370), although the pedigree shows that Alice was actually married to Robert de Tatton the 2nd. The line then continued until the early 15th century when a new manor house was built, near to the site of where the original village had stood. Following later additions to the structure of the building in the 16th century, the manor became known as Tatton Old Hall. It is unknown what became of the original early medieval manor house and any papers from the 13th century, although we know from the history of Cheshire that the family of Tatton & Massey continued to issue grants to one another. It would appear the original paperwork in addition to the original 13th century manor house has been lost to time, with very few documents from this period found in the Tatton muniments.
Charters
We have already established that the first lord of Tatton was Alan de Tatton, first recorded in 1186 in possession of a charter for the seat of Tatton. Ormerod vol 1 pg439. Also, we know from Ormerod's history of Cheshire that one moiety of Tatton was held by the prior of St. John of Jerusalem. This is also confirmed in 3 Charters dated 1187, 1188, & 1189 by Garnier de Nablus, Prior of the Knights Hospitaller of England and witnessed by brother Alan de St Cross. (See link below pages 184-189). Alan de St Cross later became the 5th
Prior of the English order of Jerusalem in 1190 with the title Alan de St. Cross,
at the same time, his predecessor, the 4th Prior Garnier de Nablus was appointed the 10th Grand Master of the Order. See the list of Priors here: - Peter Hackham is the 19th Prior. A search of “British history online” established that Alan de Tatton also went by the names Alban (Roman), Alanus, Alan de Cross & Alanus de Tatton & was raised to the bishopric of Bangor on 17th April 1195, but died on 19th
March 1196. The records mention that Alan de Tatton spent most of his episcopate in England with the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. However, it is debatable whether as Prior in the Order of the Knights Hospitaller, he would have travelled to the Holy Land with his predecessor, the new Grand Master, Garnier de Nablus. The reason for this is a 4th Charter found dated 1199, which was found to be incorrectly dated. It is stated on page 189 by Robert Gladstone Jun - (see the link on Charters),
"The correct date of the charter, beyond all reasonable doubt, is 1190. In each of the above instances Alan also uses the private seal of Garnerius, a fact which is worthy of attention". So, we can see that Prior Alan de St Cross is still in England in 1190, after Garnier had left for the crusades in 1189. At least, we can say that Alan de St. Cross, as the 5th Prior of the order in England is known to have used the private seal
of his predecessor Garnier de Nablus,
which was also used by Garnier’s predecessor Ralph de Dive 3rd Prior from 1178. Garnier de Nablus was the 10th Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller from 1190 until his death in 1192 in Acre
in the Holy Land.
The evidence proves that the line of Tatton descends directly from Prior Alan de St.Cross of the order of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem / oka Alan de Tatton, & continued through his son Alanus filius de Alani de Tatton who took his surname from the land charter he had received from his father in fee tail. As far as names are concerned, at this early part of Feudal Medieval England, titles of overseeing Lords would often have affixed to their names the place where they were officiating at a particular time & depending on which part of their affairs they were dealing with. Interestingly, the son of Alanus de Alani de Tatton was named Quenild de Tatton. It is no coincidence his Christian name is synonymous with the name of the village & Manor housing the Knights of St. John Hospitaller in Quenington, in the Cotswolds.
Knights Hospitaller Recognition
As early as the late 12th century, the order had begun to achieve recognition in the Kingdom of England and Duchy of Normandy. As a result, buildings such as St John's Jerusalem and the Knights Gate, Quenington in England were built on land donated to the order by local nobility. It was Pope Gregory 1st who built the first hospital in Jerusalem in AD603. Later in AD800, Emperor Charlemagne enlarged Probus' hospital and added a library to it. The monastic Hospitaller Order was created following the First Crusade by Blessed Gerard de Martigues. Raymond du Puy, who succeeded Gerard as master of the hospital in 1118, organized a militia from the order's members, dividing the order into three ranks: knights, men at arms, and chaplains. Raymond offered the service of his armed troops to Baldwin II of Jerusalem, and the order from this time participated in the crusades as a military order, in particular distinguishing itself in the Siege of Escalon of 1153. The Knights Hospitaller and the Knights Templar became the most formidable military orders in the Holy Land. Frederick Barbarossa , the Holy Roman Emperor, pledged his protection to the Knights of St. John in a “charter of privileges granted in 1185”.
Crusades
The Hospitallers were founded by Blessed Gerard in 1099, but were originally known as "The Order of St. John of Jerusalem". The first crusade to the Holy Land 1096-1099 ended with the seige of Jerusalem & succeeded in the recovery of the city of Jerusalem and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre from Islamic control. During the
3rd Crusade, Garnier de Nablus, (10th Grand Master of the Order) was in Paris from July 1189 to 24 March 1190 waiting for Richard I of England. He embarked in Marseille in the summer of 1190 for Messina, arriving on 23 September where he met Philippe Auguste (King of France), who had arrived from Genoa on 16 September. A document dated 8 October 1190 in Messina confirms the presence of the two kings, the Grand Master of the Hospitallers Garnier de Nablus and Robert IV de Sablé, soon to be Grand Master of the Templars. Garnier left Messina on 10 April 1191, with Richard's fleet. On September 7, the Hospitallers were attacked arriving at the gardens of Arsuf resulting in a loss of about 700 soldiers. Garnier rode towards the King & stated,"My lord the king, we are violently pressed by the enemy, and are in danger of eternal infamy, as if we did not dare to return their blows; we are each of us losing our horses one after another, and why should we bear with them any further? The King replied, "Good Master, it is you who must sustain the attack; no man can be everywhere at once." When the pressure increased, the Grand Master and one other knight, charged the Saracens. They were joined soon after by the rest of the Hospitaller force. Richard, seeing that his orders were already disobeyed, signalled for a full charge. This caught the enemy at a vulnerable moment, and their ranks were broken. Thus, in some ways, Garnier helped win the battle, though in contravention of Richard's orders. The army then marched to Beit Nuba, only 12 miles from Jerusalem. Appallingly bad weather, cold with heavy rain and hailstorms, combined with fear that if the Crusader army besieged Jerusalem, it might be trapped by a relieving force, led to the decision to retreat back to the coast. The Third Crusade did not achieve the goal of re-capturing Jerusalem. However, it facilitated the continuation of the Crusader states that were on the brink of collapse, which was further reinforced by the capture of Cyprus. The third crusade was effectively over when King Richard departed the Holy Land on 9 October 1192 after negotiating peace with Saladin. It has been reported that Saladin executed 235 Hospitallers following their capture. Other losses reported included about 190 Templar Knights. There may have been Hospitallers who also returned to England with the King & they would have returned to their official headquarters in Klerkenwell, London.
Post Crusades
After the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1291 (the city of Jerusalem had fallen in 1187), the Knights were confined to the County of Tripoli and, when Acre was captured in 1291, the order sought refuge in the Kingdom of Cyprus. Finding themselves becoming enmeshed in Cypriot politics, their Master, Guillaume de Villaret, created a plan of acquiring their own temporal domain, selecting Rhodes, then part of the Byzantine Empire. In 1522, an entirely new sort of force arrived: 400 ships under the command of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent deployed as many as 100,000 men to the island. Under Grand Master Philippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, the knights, though well-fortified, only had about 7,000 men-at-arms. The siege lasted six months, after which the defeated surviving Hospitallers were allowed to withdraw to Sicily. Despite the defeat, both Christians and Muslims seem to have regarded Phillipe Villiers as extremely valiant, and the Grand Master was proclaimed a Defender of the Faith by Pope Adrian VI. In 1530, after seven years of displacement from Rhodes, Pope Clement VII – himself a knight – reached an agreement with Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain and Sicily, to provide the knights permanent quarters in Malta. The knights would stay in Malta for the next 268 years, transforming what they called "merely a rock of soft sandstone" into a flourishing island with mighty defences, whose capital city, Valletta, would become known as Superbissima, "Most Proud". The Ottomans first attempted to take Malta in 1551 but failed. In 1565, Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Sultan, made a second attempt to take Malta. The Knights, who numbered around 500 together with approximately 6,000 foot soldiers, withstood the siege and repelled the invaders. This victory became one of the most celebrated events of sixteenth-century Europe, to the point that Voltaire said: "Nothing is better known than the siege of Malta." It undoubtedly contributed to the eventual erosion of the European perception of Ottoman invincibility, although the Mediterranean continued to be contested between Christian coalitions and the Muslim Turks for many years. The order was reorganised after 1798 when it became known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, and since 1834 to the present day has had its headquarters at the Palazzo Malta, officially named as the Magistral Palace.
Above top left:
An eight pointed white cross on a black backgound representing the Knights Hospitaller of Jerusalem during the crusades.
Above top right:
A white cross on a red background representing the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta. Also used in the Crusades.
The Maltese Cross has strong religious connections, particularly within Christianity, stemming from its association with the Knights Hospitallers and their later incarnation as the Order of Malta. The cross is a symbol of humanity through faith, hope, and love, with its four arms representing the four cardinal virtues, prudence, justice, fortitude & temperance and its eight points often interpreted as symbolizing the eight Beatitudes.
Blessed are the poor in spirit: Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn: They shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek: They shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness: They shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful: They shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart: They shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: They shall be called children of God.
Blessed are they that suffer persecution for righteousness' sake: Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
CREDITS & LINKS: -
Please feel free to click on the links below to view the content.
Robert 1st Duke of Normandy - Father of William the Conqueror - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_I,_Duke_of_Normandy
Herleve of Falais - The mistress of Robert 1st - Mother of William the Conqueror - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herluin_de_Conteville
William the Conqueror - https://www.royal.uk/william-the-conqueror
William the Conqueror - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_the_Conqueror
William the Conqueror Biography - https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-I-king-of-England
Herluin de Conteville - Viscount - Stepfather of William 1st - Married Herleve when Robert 1st died - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herluin_de_Conteville
Muriel, a daughter from the marriage of Herluin & Herleva (above) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herluin_de_Conteville
Mathieu de La Ferte-Mace & Hugh de La Ferte-Macey, (See Battle Abbey Roll below) - https://www.1066.co.nz/Mosaic%20DVD/library/battleroll.htm
Mathieu de La Ferte-Mace & Hugh -sons of Guillaume/William de La Ferte-Mace, Viscount of the Bellame family, Normandy - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Fert%C3%A9_Mac%C3%A9
1st Hamon de La Ferte-Mace/Massey at Dunham Massey - Made a baron by Hugh d'Avranches by his right as Earl of Chester, from 1071 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamon_de_Massey
2nd Baron Hamon de Massey, B. at Dunham Massey - There were many more baron Massey's here until 1341 when the last baron died. See additional notes by Helsby vol 2 p367 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamon_de_Massey
Booth & Grey of Dunham Massey - Heirs - https://www.thornber.net/cheshire/htmlfiles/dunham.html
Grey (Stamford) of Dunham Massey papers - Archive - https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/72808001-66c8-3d20-8cbc-94ecf0450055
Henry Booth, 1st Earl of Warrington - Lord Delamere - Wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Booth,_1st_Earl_of_Warrington
The Trial & Acquittal of Henry Booth - Lord Delamere - for the revolution of 1688 - https://www.hslc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/5-7-Cust.pdf
Founding of Birkenhead priory, Wirral in 1150 by the 3rd Baron Hamon de Massey - https://historicengland.org.uk/services-skills/education/educational-images/remains-of-birkenhead-priory-birkenhead-9008#:~:text=The%20Priory%20was%20founded%20in,surrounded%20by%20shipyard%20dry%20docks.
Birkenhead Priory, Wirral - https://thebirkenheadpriory.org/history/timeline-of-events/
The Battle of Hastings - https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/1066-battle-of-hastings-abbey-and-battlefield/history-and-stories/what-happened-battle-hastings/
The Bayeux Tapestry (Beachhead Scene 2 -King William at Table) - https://www.readingmuseum.org.uk/collections/britains-bayeux-tapestry
Immediately after the Conquest - https://www.readingmuseum.org.uk/collections/britains-bayeux-tapestry/what-happened-after-hastings
Battle Abbey Roll - The companions of the Conqueror - Duchesne's list 645 names - https://www.1066.co.nz/Mosaic%20DVD/library/battleroll.htm
The Oath of Salisbury - https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/old-sarum/history/oath-of-sarum/
Old Sarum - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Sarum
Harrying of the North - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrying_of_the_North#:~:text=The%20Harrying%20of%20the%20North,Anglo%2DScandinavian%20and%20Danish%20rebellions.
Revolt of the Earls 1075 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolt_of_the_Earls
Marriageable age in Norman times - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriageable_age#:~:text=In%20the%2012th%20century%2C%20Canon,is%20the%20age%20of%20reason.
A study of Anglo Saxon/Norman England - https://hsu.edu/site/assets/files/4544/2001-2afdaughters.pdf
Medieval Genealogy - medievalgenealogy.org.uk/guide/her.shtml
Land Tenure in England - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_tenure_in_England
Mesne Lord - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesne_lord
Norman Surname Protocol - https://www.sloansterling.com/venables/norman_surname.htm
Tenant-in-Chief - Wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenant-in-chief
Northenden Mill - https://diggreatermanchester.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/board1_northendenmill.pdf
Neighbouring Baguley - http://bigelowsociety.com/rod/baghist1.htm
Tatton of Wythenshaw Muniments - https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/c348a902-e1c6-317d-8086-1d9bfa27010a?component=49469ab9-ad12-377b-9ee4-9b6e81a60b5d
The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester - https://groups.google.com/g/soc.genealogy.medieval/c/WVNjAQ0zuhs
The Domesday book - Wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesday_Book#References
Cheshire - Wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheshire
The Domesday Roll of Chester - https://www.jstor.org/stable/552198
A historical review of the Roll of Chester - https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_English_Historical_Review/Volume_37/The_%27Domesday%27_Roll_of_Chester
The Domesday book online - http://www.domesdaybook.co.uk/index.html
The Domesday book name - Historic Uk - https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Domesday-Book/
Cheshire & the Domesday book - http://www.domesdaybook.co.uk/cheshire.html
The Cheshire Archives & local studies - https://www.cheshirearchives.org.uk/home.aspx
The College-of-Arms - https://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/
Brook Taylor Collection for Land Charters - 13th-14th Cent - Roger de Kenworthy, John de Kenworthy & William de Kenworthy - Geneanet - https://en.geneanet.org/library/doc/25381/sheffield-and-its-environs-13th-to-17th-century-a-descriptive-catalogue-of-land-charters-other-documents-forming-the-brooke-taylor-collection
Naden in the Salford 100 - https://salfordhundred.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/naden/
History of Stanlow Abbey - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanlow_Abbey
History of Naden/Norden - https://www.rmnf.org.uk/history-timeline/#:~:text=Rochdale%20produced%2090%25%20of%20the,the%20newly%20built%20parish%20church.
History of Roger de Poitevin/Poitou - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_the_Poitevin
History of Rochdale-John de Lascy - https://www.rmnf.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/chapter-i-general-history-pages1-64.pdf
John de Lascy - OKA - John Fitz Richard -OKA - Baron of Halton - Seat of Rochdale in 1187 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_fitz_Richard
Chester Castle - https://www.castlewales.com/chester.html
Abbey of St Werburgh - https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/ches/vol3/pp132-146
The Earl of Chester - https://lordmayorchester.co.uk/civic-history-and-regalia/earl-of-chester/
Hugh d'Avranches - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_earls_in_the_reign_of_William_the_Conqueror
Early Norman surname protocol/primogeniture from Domesday - https://www.sloansterling.com/venables/cheshire.html
The Domesday Book - https://bushywood.com/history/Domesday_book.htm
The Domesday Book - County Edition - https://addisonpublications.com/portfolio/the-domesday-book-county-edition/
Open Domesday - https://opendomesday.org/
Domesday Book - Chester/Cheshire - https://opendomesday.org/book/cheshire/01/
BBC British History - https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/normans/doomsday_01.shtml
The British Library - https://www.bl.uk
The Knights Hospitaller - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Hospitaller
Northenden/Kenworthy 1897 map - Francis Frith Collections - https://www.francisfrith.com/northenden/northenden-1897-1908_hosm55352
Family History Society of Cheshire - A CD. The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester - fhsc.org.uk/new-ce-2.html
Early Charters of the Knights Hospitaller, 31 pages - Author Robert Gladstone Junior. B.C.L., M.A .- Includes details of Alan de St. Cross found here (page 184/9) -
https://www.hslc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/54-8-Gladstone.pdf
Website URL: kenworthypast.co.uk
Email: gavin@kenworthypast.co.uk
© Gavin Lucas 2024. (All works herein are copyright & comply with Non-Commercial use).
Page last updated 6th June 2025