Series 4 > Knights of St John of Jerusalem in Scotland

lii
THE KNIGHTS OF ST JOHN
December, where he made proof of his nobility1 and was received
as a brother of the langue.2 In March 1541 the Grand Master de
Homedes conferred the grant of ancienitas and appointed Sandilands
procurator of the common treasury in Scotland.3 On his way home
to Scotland Sandilands paused in Rome to secure papal confirmation
of his right of expectation.4
Walter Lindsay died in 1546. His preceptorship is perhaps of
greatest interest because during it Lindsay compiled the Rentale
omnium terrarum decimarum et reddituum tocius dominii et preceptorie de
torphichin,5 a volume of 120 pages which contains a rental not only
of the baronies of Torphichen, Thankerton (Lanarkshire), Denny
(Stirlingshire), Temple of Balantrodoch, and Maryculter, the
churches of Maryculter, Aboyne, Tullich, and Inchinnan, and
various assorted lands (including Galtway), but also a rental of'
hundreds of tiny crofts and ‘templelands’ dotted across Scotland
from the Solway to the Pentland Firth. Perhaps Lindsay compiled
it while he was exercising his commission to feu out the remote
lands of the order. In addition Lindsay erected in 1538 a fine
monument in Torphichen church to his uncle and predecessor
George Dundas.6 He was one of the leaders of the Scottish army
on the borders in 1542, in which capacity he was described as ‘ane
nobill and potent lord . . . who was weill besene and practissit in
weiris baitht in Itallie and had fouchtin oft tymeis against the
Turkis witht the lord of the Rodis, and thair he was maid knycht
for walleizand actis and thaireftir come in Scotland and seruit our
king and had great credit witht him’.7 A career such as his is a
caution against assuming that Scots only joined the Hospitallers in
order to control the wealth of the preceptory of Torphichen.
In March 1547 his successor, James Sandilands, procured bulls at
Malta from the grand master de Homedes presenting him to the
1 Malta Cod., 86, IF. mv, liar
2 Malta Cod., 86, f. liar
3 Ibid., f. 1131; sro, GD 119/16, 17; Malta Cod., 417, f. ipir-v
4 He left Malta in March 1541 (sro, GD 119/18; cf. Malta Cod., 417, f. 19IV) and
was in Rome in May (sro, GD 119/19)
6 sro, GD 247/101/ia
6 Hist. Mon. Comm. (West Lothian), 236 and facing p.238
7 Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, The Historic and Cronicles of Scotland, ed. A. J. G.
zv Mackay (sxs, 1899), i> 396