By kind permission of Peter Allen, current owner of John O’Gaddesden’s House, Little Gaddesden, Herts.
John O’Gaddesden was born in
1280, possibly in a house on the site of the present one, and possibly the son
of or a relative of the John O’Gaddesden who was one of the original sponsors
of the College of Bonhommes at Ashridge, established by 1286. Thus he was most probably born into a
reasonably established family who were known to the Royal Family, as Edmund
Earl of Cornwall was the founder of the college, Edward I held Parliament there
in 1290, and Berkhamsted Castle was a favourite of the Court during this time.
In 1294, aged 14, John went to
Oxford Grammar School with courses in arts, Latin, composing verses and writing
essays in English and French. At age 16
he began studying at Merton College, Oxford for his BA which he gained four
years later. He took three more years
to gain his MA and then started to study medicine, graduating as Bachelor of
Medicine in 1307 and a doctor in 1309.
He was later to become a Fellow of Merton. He had a large doctor’s practice in London and became court
physician to Edward II. By 1317 he had
completed his Rosa Anglica (or Rosa Medicinae) which was a treatise on the
practice of medicine, a significant work and a major reference book used
throughout Europe for over 300 years.
It is not known where John
took Holy Orders, but he was named as Rector of Abingdon in 1316, while 5 years
later he was appointed to Chipping Norton with leave to study. In 1330 he was granted a canonry and prebend
at St Paul’s and later at Chichester, later still came his appointment to the
influential post of King’s Clerk. From this time on he was in the service of
the King and his family of 12 children, of whom the Black Prince was the
eldest.
In 1342, authority for his
continued non-residence at Chipping Norton was approved so that he might serve
the Black Prince, then but 12 years old.
That their relationship burgeoned may be deduced from the Black Prince’s
gift in gold to John in 1346, the year in which the Black Prince joined his
father in action at the Battle of Crecy and in which John was in attendance
notwithstanding his advanced years (he was then 55). Then comes a mystery which is still the subject of research: some
sources record John’s death in 1349, but there are other records which refer to
a John of Gaddesden who fought in France from 1339 and who held a number of
Royal appointments there including Marshal of Calais after the lifting of the
siege in 1347. There is nothing so far
to show that there were two Johns of Gaddesden at that time or just one who did
not in fact die at 69, but lived on into his eighties.
As to the house itself, there
is a reference to ‘Gaddesden where Lord of Darbye had a pretty manor place of
timber’. This would have been in the
latter half of the 14th century, after John had died. This Lord of Darbye was Henry Bolingbroke,
born 1366, who became Henry IV in 1399.
He was the son of John of Gaunt, younger brother of the Black
Prince. An expert recently reported
that there are remnants of a 13th century house to be seen in the
present building and evidence of extensive improvements over succeeding
years. It was therefore possible to
conclude that there had been a house on the site since the 1200s, but the main
structure had not changed much until 1948 when it was considerably extended by
local builder Fred Whitman with the help of Dickie Fountain, Steve Oakins,
Arthur Clifton and Bill Green.
It should be stressed that
there is no concrete evidence to show that John ever lived in the old house,
nor is it yet known in what circumstances it received its name, but down the
years it has served as a court house, a farmhouse, two to four cottages, the
Village Reading Room and a private residence.
The above text from two
lectures given in 1997 by Peter Allen, present owner of John O’Gaddesden’s
House, and which appeared previously in the Dacorum Heritage Trust Newsletter
No. 10 January 1998.