DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1212#0307
st. john's-square. 223
St. John's-lane is the next deviation, to be made from
the main street. On a house at the corner of this street
is a stone tablet bearing the inscription—" Opposite
this spot Hicks's Hall formerly stood.'' From this point
all the distances on the North Road were once measured,
and some obsolete mile-stones still intimate that they are
land-marks to a place -without visible existence—Hicks's
Hall. At the end of this lane is St. Jolin's-square, a
locality celebrated not only for its chivalric, but its literary
reminiscences. It was in the early ages the site of the
house or Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, the style of a
celebrated order of knights. After Jerusalem had been
taken from the Saracens, many pilgrims travelled to Pa-
lestine to offer their devotions at the Holy Sepulchre.
Among the visitants "was one named Gerardus, who
assumed a black robe, whereon was a white cross with
eight spikes. He undertook the curatorship of an hos-
pital previously established at Jerusalem for the use of
pilgrims; and he engaged also to protect them from
injury or insult on their outward and homeward journey.
This order of knighthood was founded by Godfrey of Bou-
logne, and to reward the bravery of Gerardus at the battle
of Ascalon, he granted large estates to the knights, so that
they might be enabled to cany out the purposes of their
institution, of which the kings of France were the sove-
reigns. After the capture of Jerusalem they wandered
from place to place in search of an asylum, and having
taken Rhodes settled there, and were called the Knights
of Rhodes. Upon the loss of Rhodes they withdrew to
Malta, by the name of which their order was then known.
Jordan Brisct and Muriel his wife, people of rank, founded
the Hospital of St. John in 1100, having purchased of the
prioress and nuns of Clerkenwell, ten acres of land. The
hospital was consecrated by Heraemis, the patriarch of St,
"John of Jerusalem, and in the course of time became the
chief seat in England of the Knights Hospitallers. In 1323,
the revenues of the English knight templars were given to
them, and to such distinction did they attain, that their
St. John's-lane is the next deviation, to be made from
the main street. On a house at the corner of this street
is a stone tablet bearing the inscription—" Opposite
this spot Hicks's Hall formerly stood.'' From this point
all the distances on the North Road were once measured,
and some obsolete mile-stones still intimate that they are
land-marks to a place -without visible existence—Hicks's
Hall. At the end of this lane is St. Jolin's-square, a
locality celebrated not only for its chivalric, but its literary
reminiscences. It was in the early ages the site of the
house or Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, the style of a
celebrated order of knights. After Jerusalem had been
taken from the Saracens, many pilgrims travelled to Pa-
lestine to offer their devotions at the Holy Sepulchre.
Among the visitants "was one named Gerardus, who
assumed a black robe, whereon was a white cross with
eight spikes. He undertook the curatorship of an hos-
pital previously established at Jerusalem for the use of
pilgrims; and he engaged also to protect them from
injury or insult on their outward and homeward journey.
This order of knighthood was founded by Godfrey of Bou-
logne, and to reward the bravery of Gerardus at the battle
of Ascalon, he granted large estates to the knights, so that
they might be enabled to cany out the purposes of their
institution, of which the kings of France were the sove-
reigns. After the capture of Jerusalem they wandered
from place to place in search of an asylum, and having
taken Rhodes settled there, and were called the Knights
of Rhodes. Upon the loss of Rhodes they withdrew to
Malta, by the name of which their order was then known.
Jordan Brisct and Muriel his wife, people of rank, founded
the Hospital of St. John in 1100, having purchased of the
prioress and nuns of Clerkenwell, ten acres of land. The
hospital was consecrated by Heraemis, the patriarch of St,
"John of Jerusalem, and in the course of time became the
chief seat in England of the Knights Hospitallers. In 1323,
the revenues of the English knight templars were given to
them, and to such distinction did they attain, that their