Ewell in the Hundred of Bewsborough, was a principal Mansion of the Knights Templers, to which much Land was united, both in this Track, and in Romney Mersh, where they held the Mannors of Hony-Child and East-Bridge, as appears by the Book called Liber de Terris Templariorum, collected in the year 1130, and kept in the Ex∣chequer. They were founded in the year 1118, in manner following. Cetrain Knights obliged themselves by Vow, in the Hands of the Hands of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, to serve Christ after the mannor of Regular Cannons, in Chastiry and Obedience, renouncing their own Wills for ever: they likewise professed to defend the Crosse and Sepulcher of our Saviour from the Eruptions of Infidels, and to secure the highways for the Indempnity of Pilgrims, from the Ambushes of Free-booters, that they might more freely visit the place of our Saviours Agony and Crucifixion. They were called Templers, either from their Vow to defend the Temple, or else, from those Lodgings which were assigned them, neer that place, by Baldwin the fourth King of Jerusalem. This order in the second year of Edward the second, was totally supprest throughout Christendome. The Crimes alledged against them, were Pride, Covetousnesse, for did and unaturall Uncleannesse, and lastly private Collusions and Treaties with Infidels, which tended to the Subversion of the Christian Cause in Palestine, all which they solemnly renownced at their Death, which best interprets their Innocence to future Times: for certainly it was impossible, that an Order which had tyed themselves up, upon their Institution, within the Limitations of so strict a Vow, could universally at one Time, and in all places of the World where they were established, degenerate into those black, horrid and prodigious Crimes, wherewith their Enemies bespattered them. But indeed those who have fathomed the Cause of this their totall Abolition, find, that they were warping with some Compliance too eagerly to a Combination with the Emperour, who was then in Contest with the Pope, about vindicating his temporal power in Italy, and elsewhere, from the unjust enchroachments made upon it by that See. Which his Holyness descrying, wrapt them up in those pretended Crimes, as the Roman Persecutors did the ancient Christians, in the skins of Beasts, that they might more easily be devoured. Upon this their Dissolution, their House here at Temple Ewell, was given to the Knights of St. John Baptist of Jerusalem, an Order rather restored then instituted by one Girardus, whose Vow was almost coincident in all the Ingredients of it, with that of the Knights Templers. And in their Demeasne did this place lye wound up, untill the finall Dissolution, in the Reign of Henry the eighth; and then being linked to the Revenue of the Crown it was fixed there untill the sixth year of Edward the sixth, and then it was granted to William Cavendish Esquire, and he the same year conveyed it to Christopher Sackvill, and Winefrid his Wife, who about the beginning of Queen Elizabeth, alienated it to John D•niell, who about the latter end of that Princesse, dying without Issue-male, his Estate here devolved to his two Daughters and Coheirs, matched to Mab and Wiseman, who both concurred, and by joynt Consent alienated the Propriety of this place, about the beginning of King James, to Mr..... Angell of London, whose Son Mr...... Angell of Crowherst in Surrey, is now entitu∣led to the Fee-simple of it.

Bonnington in the Hundred of Street did anciently appertain to the Knights Templars, and being found in the Register of their Demeasne at their total Sup∣pression, which was in the second year of Edward the second, it was in the seventeenth year of that Princes Rule by a new Provision made by Act of Parliament, setled on the Knights Hospitallers, or of St. Johns of Jerusalem, and so lay enwrapped in their Patrimony which was wide and spacious in this Track, untill the Reign of Henry the eighth, and then by the Suppression of this Order it was made parcell of the Royall Revenue, untill the above said Prince in the thirty fifth year of his Govern∣ment granted it to Sir Thomas Moile, and he not long after conveyed it by Sale to Sir James Hales of the Dungeon neer Canterbury, from whom it devolved by successive Right to his Successor Sir James Hales, who almost in our Memory alienated his Interest in it to Sir William Man of Canterbury.

The Order of St John,[3] short for Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( French: l'ordre très vénérable de l'Hôpital de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem)[n 1] and also known as St John International,[4] is a British royal order of chivalry constituted in 1888 by royal charter from Queen Victoria and dedicated to St John the Baptist.

The order traces its origins back to the Knights Hospitaller in the Middle Ages, which was later known as the Order of Malta. A faction of them emerged in France in the 1820s and moved to Britain in the early 1830s, where, after operating under a succession of grand priors and different names, it became associated with the founding in 1882 of the St John Ophthalmic Hospital near the old city of Jerusalem and the St John Ambulance Brigade in 1887.