The Order of St Thomas of Canterbury in Acre

The Order of St Thomas of Acre had its beginnings in a chapel and cemetery established outside the walls of Acre during the siege that resulted in the city’s recapture by the Franks in 1191. ¹ According to Ralph of Diceto, dean of London, its founder was his own chaplain, William, who also became the first prior. ² Ralph’s account is repeated in a shortened form by Roger of Wendover ³ and by Matthew Paris. ⁴ The Annals of Dunstable Priory, however, attribute the foundation to Hubert Walter, bishop of Salisbury and later archbishop of Canterbury, ⁵ while Matthew Paris himself later credited King Richard I with both pledging to establish a chapel to St Thomas in Acre while he was still at sea and with putting the promise into effect when he was at Jaffa in 1192. ⁶ As Alan Forey has pointed out, it is possible that all three had a hand in the foundation, though Richard’s was to be the part more often recalled by posterity. ⁷