Temple is situate in the hundred of Trigg, and hath upon the north
Brewar, south part of Cardenham and Warliggan, west Blisland, east
part of St. Neot and Altarnun. As for the name, it is derived from the
Latin Templum, and signifies amongst Christians, a church, chapel, or
temple for performing Divine Service or worship to God, by
contemplation or action of body or mind.
But here, in a more especial manner so called for, that this church or
chapel was a cell or temple pertaining to the great master of the
Knights Templars of Jerusalem, under its superior in the Middle Temple
of London, now the lawyers’ Inn, where was their chief manor or
commandery. This religious fraternity took an oath of confederacy, for
aiding and assisting all persons, pilgrims, and strangers, that
intended by way of Joppa to visit Jerusalem and the sepulchre of our
Saviour; who, for that by licence of the abbot of a church there
called the Temple, in which they had their seats (as is now used in
our churches), they were from thence called Templars.
This district now in Cornwall, consisting only of eight tenements of
land, and about thirty human souls, in the Domesday Book 1087, was
taxed under the jurisdiction of Nietstone, still contiguous therewith.
In the inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester into the
value of Cornish Benefices 1294, Capella de Templo was rated to First
Fruits at 10_s._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition it is not named. After the
dissolution of the Knights Hospitallers in England (to whom the lands
of the Knights Templars had been given) this manor of Temple fell to
the Crown.