Maurice Denys
Videos
Sir Maurice Denys (1516–1563) of Siston Court, near Bristol, Gloucestershire, and of St John's Street, Clerkenwell, Middlesex, was an English lawyer and property speculator during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, at which time he served as a "powerful figure at the Court of Augmentations". He served as a Member of Parliament for Malmesbury in Wiltshire and as Treasurer of Calais. He was the builder of Siston Court in Gloucestershire, which survives largely unaltered since his time. His excessive speculation and borrowing caused the ruination of the Siston branch of the Denys family.
Siston Court, built by Sir Maurice Denys, 1712 illustration by Jan Kip
Siston Court in 2008, surviving largely as built by Sir Maurice Denys
North wing of Siston Court, with heraldic shields (see below) on the bay windows showing the ancestry of Sir Maurice Denys, including the arms of Corbet of Siston, the heiress first wife of his ancestor Sir Gilbert Denys (d.1422)
Sir Nicholas Poyntz, husband of Jane Berkeley, first cousin of Maurice Denys, in a drawing by Hans Holbein the Younger
St John's Jerusalem
Videos
St John's Jerusalem or Sutton-at-Hone Preceptory is a National Trust property at Sutton-at-Hone, Kent, England which includes the 13th century chapel of the Knights Hospitaller and a garden moated by the River Darent. The chapel and garden are open to the public.
St John's Jerusalem with Cedar of Lebanon in foreground
St John's Jerusalem's moat