History of St John's Jerusalem

History of the order

The Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem began in Jerusalem around 1070 to care for pilgrims, and evolved into a sovereign military and charitable order, recognized by Pope Paschal II in 1113. Initially focused on care for the sick and poor, the Order gradually took on military responsibilities to defend pilgrims and Christians in the Holy Land. By the 1120s and 1130s, knights were incorporated, transforming the organization into a military religious order.

Organisation

The Order's lands in Western Europe were managed by Commanderies, with hundreds of these across Europe, each divided into around twenty-five preceptories. The Commandery was the administrative centre. The preceptories were self-sufficient communities and provided work and security for their local workforce and included all the necessities of life such as fishponds, vegetable gardens, stables, storehouses, brewery and smithy. Each ruling prior was responsible for training and supplying the Order in the Holy Land with new recruits, armour, horses, clothing, food and funds.

Retreat

With the fall of Jerusalem in 1187, the Order retreated to Palestine, then Cyprus, relocating to Rhodes in 1309 and Malta in 1530, before being expelled from there by Napolean in 1798. This led to a period of dispersal before the order re-established its headquarters in Rome in 1834.

Revival and Recognition

The English knights devoted themselves to charitable activities and formed the Order of St John. They set up the St John Ambulance Association in 1877 initially focussing on first aid in industrial areas such as railway centres and mining districts. The first aiders became known as the St John's Ambulance Brigade. The Order was granted a Royal Charter in 1888 by Queen Victoria.

The present-day St John’s Foundation was formed in 1974 by the amalgamation of the St John's Ambulance Association and the St John's Ambulance Brigade.

History of St John’s Jerusalem

Robert de Basing gave his manor in Sutton-at-Hone to the Knights Hospitallers of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem in 1199.

Construction of the chapel began in the early 13th century and by 1234, Henry III, who was a frequent visitor, ordered five oaks to be cut from his forest at Tonbridge for the chapel roof. The wall structures are mainly flint rubble and mortar with ashlar dressings (finely cut stone blocks that frame or decorate corners, windows and doors of buildings).

There is little documentary evidence of the use of the completed building through the 14th and 15th Centuries, but it is known that the preceptory continued as a religious house until the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

The Dissolution

At the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII between 1536 and 1541, the King granted Sir Maurice Denys (1516-1564) the right to purchase the manor and chapel. Whether Denys lived in the buildings, precisely who undertook any alterations in the16th century, and the extent of these is unclear, despite much research. The property then passed through Denys’ descendants and by marriage to the Cranfield family, before being conveyed to Thomas Hollis in 1649. It is also not known if the Cranfield or Hollis families ever lived at St John’s.

17th century

Abraham Hill (1633-1721) took possession of the property in 1667, by which time it appears that most of the buildings apart from the chapel and tower had been demolished. Hill transformed much of the remaining building, apart from the east end of the chapel, into a house. Hill was one of the founders of the Royal Society and introduced the cider industry of Devon to Kent and planted an orchard, the remains of which can be seen today.

18th and 19th Centuries

Edward Hasted (1732-1812) was a celebrated historian, noted for his four-volume history of Kent. In 1755 he took a long lease on the estate with the property in need of renovation. He spent so much money on the house that he was declared bankrupt in 1796 and was imprisoned for 12 years.

St John’s then went through several ownerships before the Russell family acquired it and made the last substantial alteration to the building in the late 19th century. A floor was inserted into the chapel to create a billiard room below, with a scullery, and a series of 11 steps were added externally, to give access to the chapel through a converted lancet window. The new floor is visible in the image below.

The cedar of Lebanon tree near the house may have been planted at around this time, as it does not appear in an engraving of the south front made in 1838.

20th century

When Sir Stephen Tallents (1884-1958 - Civil Servant and Controller of Public Relations at the BBC) and his wife Lady Bridget Tallents moved into the house in 1927, they continued to use the kitchen garden for growing fruit and vegetables, and their two gardeners also planted out seasonal ornamental bedding around the garden. 

The Tallents created the tennis court, refurbished the sluices on the moat, and planted many varieties of willow on the banks of the stream, reflecting his personal interest in the species.

Sir Stephen and Lady Bridget gifted St John’s Jerusalem to the National Trust in 1943. The house is tenanted and is not open to the public, but the chapel and garden are open on selected days. The kitchen garden is planted with herbaceous borders, and the meadow and orchard are mown with pathways for visitors to enjoy. 

The chapel forming the eastern extremity of the house is one of the most substantial intact remains of a 13th-century preceptory and is of national importance. The chapel is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and the house is a listed Grade II* building.

Symbolism of the white Maltese Cross

The white cross appears on the altar cloth in the chapel.

• The colour white represents purity.
• The four arms of the cross represent virtues: carefulness, justice, moderate behaviour and courage.
• The eight points refer to the biblical Beatitudes - the ideals of life laid out in the book of Matthew, today used to represent qualities of a good first aider: observant, tactful, resourceful, dextrous, sympathetic, persevering, discriminating and explicit.