Temple. This little parish is in the hundred of Trigg, and has to the
west Blissland, to the south Cardenham and Warlegon, to the east and
north Brewer, alias Symonward.
It is so called, because it belonged formerly to the Knights Templars;
and lying in a wild wastrell, exempted from the Bishop’s jurisdiction,
many a bad marriage-bargain is there yearly slubbered up [now
precluded by the Marriage Act, which is bad in many points, but good
in this]; and grass widows with their fatlings put to lie in and nurse
here. [This practice still continues, and has given rise to a mode of
expression, which sends off unmarried but pregnant women to lie in
privately, by despatching them to the Moors, meaning that long range
of wilderness which is called Temple Moors. W.]
It is not valued in the King’s Book. In Tax. Ben. anno 1291, 20 Edward
I. it is by the name of Capella de Temple, 10_s._