ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to address the current state of knowledge on the organization and administration of the Hospitaller houses of Britain and Ireland in the fourteenth century through the re-examination of a report compiled by the prior of England, Philip de Thame, in 1338 for Grand Master de Villeneuve which contains an inventory of incomes and expenses for all of the Hospitaller properties in England and Wales, as well as those properties there which had belonged previously to the Templars. The Report of 1338 remains a valuable tool for the study of the Hospitallers in Britain as it gives the most detailed information on the location, size, and composition of the houses, the occupations of their members, and the variety of ways in which the Order of St John involved itself within national and local communities. However, the possibility that the Report of 1338 may not have been intended to be an accurate inventory of Hospitaller properties will be explored here, along with some suggestions on the purpose of this document as it relates to the Order’s administration of its westernmost properties.
