Bailiff of Egle

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 566, 19 January 1929, Page 24

Bailiff of Egle

HOLDER OF OLD ENGLISH TITLE VISITS AUCKLAND ' . . . HISTORIC VILLAGE ' IMMORTALISED

ORDER OF ST. JOHN

rrHE visit to Auckland of Sir John Prescott Hewett, head of the delegation of the Order of St. John, recalls the curious history of the historic little village from which comes the high title, Bailiff of Egle. Sir John is Bailiff of Egle and has held the title since 1922. Not long ago he visited Egle in that capacity. He was the first Bailiff to do so for generations. The Bailiffs of Egle take their title from a little village seven miles from the City of Lincoln. The estates of the Order of St. John were grouped together into administrative areas called Commanderies—the Commandery of Egle was one of these administrative areas. Now the great dignitaries of the Order of St. John bore the title of Bailiff from time immemorial, as they do to the present day. In order that each nation might be properly represented in accordance with its importance on the Council and Chap-ter-General, certain commanderies were from time to time created bailiwicks, which gave them a seat on both these tribunals.

The Commandery ot Egle was raised to the dignity of a Bailiwick in 1381, and from that date the long line of Bailiffs of Egle begins. The first of the Bailiffs, Sir John Redington, was Grand Prior of England from 1381 to 1399. It was he who rebuilt the Convent of the Order of Clerkenwell, after its destruction by Wat Tyler in 1381.

The title of Bailiff of Egle fell into abeyance in 1540, when King Henry VIII. suppressed the Order of St. John in England; but it was restored again by Queen Mary in 1557. After the confiscation of the estates of the Order by Queen Elizabeth in 1559, the title once more fell into abeyance in England. Some years after the revival of the Grand Priorv m England in 1831 the title of Bailiff of Egle was revived, and for many ye ® r * beld by Field-Marshal H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught.