Over the years, there has been controversy over the origin of the derivation of the name “Templestowe”. Some years ago, a local resident, interested in researching the name wrote to me, and the following information will be of interest to our members.
It has been considered by some, that the name “Templestowe” was taken from the name of a fictional village in Sir Walter Scott’s novel “Ivanhoe”. After reading the novel, our correspondent tells us that the village “Templestowe” is only mentioned once in the story about one-third through chapter 43, near the end of the novel. A great deal of the action in the novel takes place in the Preceptory of Templestowe, which is at a distance from the village.
A preceptory was a fortress of the Knights Templar i.e. Soldiers of the Temple of Zion, an organisation of fierce Christian knights founded in Jerusalem after the first crusade. The fortress was called a preceptory because the head Templar who presided over it was called a preceptor. “Stowe” is a suffix meaning, “place”.
Thus, it seems that Scott called his village “Templestowe” because it was a place where there was a fortress of the Temple of Zion. So we may deduce that the name Templestowe means, “place of the Templars” or the organisation of the Temple of Zion.
In the novel, there is very little evidence of the whereabouts of the “Templestowe” village. It was said to be a day’s journey on horseback from Torquilstone, the seat of the Norman knight Reginald Front de Boeuf whose domain was near Rotherwood north of Sheffield in North Yorkshire in England. Rotherwood perhaps took its name from the River Rother not far from Sheffield.
Not far from present-day Rotherham and Sheffield is a real village named “Templeborough”. The suffix “borough” means fortress, so that perhaps assuming that “temple” refers to the Temple of Zion, Templeborough was named after a Preceptory.
All this material is quite speculative, but it is interesting to note that not far north of the area described in Scott’s novel, lies the City of Doncaster, Yorkshire, so that it is perhaps logical to suppose that there was some connection between the choice of names of our two adjoining suburbs of Doncaster and Templestowe in the City of Manningham.
Source: 2005-03 DTHS Newsletter
Was Templestowe invented by Walter Scott ?
- “Well,” answered the Templar, “an thou wilt tarry there, remember I have redeemed word and glove. Be the hawks where they will, methinks the walls of the Preceptory of Templestowe will be cover sufficient, and thither will I, like heron to her haunt.”
- The Prior sat down, and at great leisure indited an epistle to Brian de Bois-Guilbert, and having carefully sealed up the tablets, delivered them to the Jew, saying, “This will be thy safe-conduct to the Preceptory of Templestowe, and, as I think, is most likely to accomplish the delivery of thy daughter, if it be well backed with proffers of advantage and commodity at thine own hand; for, trust me well, the good Knight Bois-Guilbert is of their confraternity that do nought for nought.”
- Our tale now returns to Isaac of York.—Mounted upon a mule, the gift of the Outlaw, with two tall yeomen to act as his guard and guides, the Jew had set out for the Preceptory of Templestowe, for the purpose of negotiating his daughter’s redemption.
- On the morrow, when Isaac proposed to arise and pursue his journey, Nathan remonstrated against his purpose, both as his host and as his physician. It might cost him, he said, his life. But Isaac replied, that more than life and death depended upon his going that morning to Templestowe.
- “To Templestowe!” said his host with surprise again felt his pulse, and then muttered to himself, “His fever is abated, yet seems his mind somewhat alienated and disturbed.”
- “And why not to Templestowe?” answered his patient. “I grant thee, Nathan, that it is a dwelling of those to whom the despised Children of the Promise are a stumbling-block and an abomination; yet thou knowest that pressing affairs of traffic sometimes carry us among these bloodthirsty Nazarene soldiers, and that we visit the Preceptories of the Templars, as well as the Commanderies of the Knights Hospitallers, as they are called.”
- “I know it well,” said Nathan; “but wottest thou that Lucas de Beaumanoir, the chief of their Order, and whom they term Grand Master, is now himself at Templestowe?”
- “Nevertheless,” said Isaac, “I must present myself at Templestowe, though he hath made his face like unto a fiery furnace seven times heated.”
- Isaac accordingly bade his friend farewell, and about an hour’s riding brought him before the Preceptory of Templestowe.
- In a word, the stern ascetic rigour of the Temple discipline, which had been so long exchanged for prodigal and licentious indulgence, seemed at once to have revived at Templestowe under the severe eye of Lucas Beaumanoir.
- Meanwhile, the Grand Master ordered to his presence the Preceptor of Templestowe.
- Albert Malvoisin, President, or, in the language of the Order, Preceptor of the establishment of Templestowe, was brother to that Philip Malvoisin who has been already occasionally mentioned in this history, and was, like that baron, in close league with Brian de Bois-Guilbert.
- Amongst dissolute and unprincipled men, of whom the Temple Order included but too many, Albert of Templestowe might be distinguished; but with this difference from the audacious Bois-Guilbert, that he knew how to throw over his vices and his ambition the veil of hypocrisy, and to assume in his exterior the fanaticism which he internally despised.
- Had not the arrival of the Grand Master been so unexpectedly sudden, he would have seen nothing at Templestowe which might have appeared to argue any relaxation of discipline.
- “Malvoisin, they MUST be found,” said Conrade; “well will it advantage both the Order and thee. This Templestowe is a poor Preceptory—that of Maison-Dieu is worth double its value—thou knowest my interest with our old Chief—find those who can carry this matter through, and thou art Preceptor of Maison-Dieu in the fertile Kent—How sayst thou?”
- The Preceptor of Templestowe was then called on to describe the manner in which Bois-Guilbert and the Jewess arrived at the Preceptory. The evidence of Malvoisin was skilfully guarded.
- With a hypocritical look of the deepest submission, the Preceptor of Templestowe bowed to the ground before his Superior, and resumed his seat.
- Moreover, he said, she had given him a pot of that precious ointment, and furnished him with a piece of money withal, to return to the house of his father, near to Templestowe.
- Though both were hardened and inflexible villains, the sight of the captive maiden, as well as her excelling beauty, at first appeared to stagger them; but an expressive glance from the Preceptor of Templestowe restored them to their dogged composure; and they delivered, with a precision which would have seemed suspicious to more impartial judges, circumstances either altogether fictitious or trivial, and natural in themselves, but rendered pregnant with suspicion by the exaggerated manner in which they were told, and the sinister commentary which the witnesses added to the facts.
- Wherefore the most reverend Father and puissant Lord, Lucas Marquis of Beaumanoir, did allow of the said challenge, and of the said ‘essoine’ of the appellant’s body, and assigned the third day for the said combat, the place being the enclosure called the lists of Saint George, near to the Preceptory of Templestowe.
- My father, if a strong man can be found to do battle for my cause with sword and spear, according to the custom of the Nazarenes, and that within the lists of Templestowe, on the third day from this time, peradventure our fathers’ God will give him strength to defend the innocent, and her who hath none to help her. But if this may not be, let the virgins of our people mourn for me as for one cast off, and for the hart that is stricken by the hunter, and for the flower which is cut down by the scythe of the mower.
- Our scene now returns to the exterior of the Castle, or Preceptory, of Templestowe, about the hour when the bloody die was to be cast for the life or death of Rebecca.
- The eyes, therefore, of a very considerable multitude, were bent on the gate of the Preceptory of Templestowe, with the purpose of witnessing the procession; while still greater numbers had already surrounded the tiltyard belonging to that establishment.
- As they thus conversed, the heavy bell of the church of Saint Michael of Templestowe, a venerable building, situated in a hamlet at some distance from the Preceptory, broke short their argument.
- From the judicial investigations which followed on this occasion, and which are given at length in the Wardour Manuscript, it appears that Maurice de Bracy escaped beyond seas, and went into the service of Philip of France; while Philip de Malvoisin, and his brother Albert, the Preceptor of Templestowe, were executed, although Waldemar Fitzurse, the soul of the conspiracy, escaped with banishment; and Prince John, for whose behoof it was undertaken, was not even censured by his good-natured brother.
- I am—forgive the boldness which has offered to you the homage of my country—I am the unhappy Jewess, for whom your husband hazarded his life against such fearful odds in the tiltyard of Templestowe.”
- But my heart swells when I think of Torquilstone and the lists of Templestowe.—Farewell.
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