A brief history of the Order of St John

The Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem was founded after the first Crusade captured Jerusalem in 1099.
The Order consisted of a group of Knights, men from noble European families who took vows of poverty, chastity, obedience and care of the sick. In Jerusalem, the Order established a hospital to care for sick pilgrims who had travelled to the Holy Land. Later it took on a military role, and took control of Crusader castles. The Order’s hospitals treated the sick and wounded without distinction of race, colour or creed.

Further images

  • Sixteenth century print of patients receiving treatment in an early hospital of the Order of St John; in the foreground a corpse is sewn into a shroud
  • Poster of St John Ambulance cadets helping an injured girl
  • Photograph taken in 1901 of St John Ambulance volunteers with poor children in the crypt of the Priory Church of St John in Clerkenwell

Detail from an embroidered robe in the Museum collection

Embroidered Nativity scene with John the Baptist kneeling at the feet of the Virgin, who is attended by angels

When Palestine was recaptured by Muslim forces in 1291, the Order moved briefly to Cyprus and then, in 1309, to Rhodes. The Order remained on Rhodes until 1522, when the Turkish Sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, conquered the island.

From Rhodes, the Order moved to Malta. After a famous siege by Suleiman in 1565, which the Knights and the Maltese people survived, a new capital city, Valetta, was built. The Order’s ships patrolled the Mediterranean and remained on Malta until 1798. Malta was lost to Napoleon in 1798. The original Roman Catholic Order still has headquarters in Rome; its full title is the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta. It remains a sovereign entity in international law and is engaged in international charity work.

In the 1140s the Priory in Clerkenwell was set up as the English headquarters of the Order. When King Henry VIII split from the Catholic Church and established a new Anglican Church, the Order in England was dissolved and all its lands and wealth were seized by the Crown. The Order was briefly restored by Henry’s Catholic daughter, Queen Mary, who granted it a Royal Charter. However, on the accession of her Protestant sister, Queen Elizabeth I, the Order in England was dissolved for good.

The buildings in Clerkenwell were put to different uses in the years that followed. During the sixteenth century they were used as the offices of the Master of the Revels. Thirty of Shakespeare’s plays were licensed here.

In the eighteenth century the Gate was briefly used as a coffee house, run by Richard Hogarth, father of the artist William Hogarth. Dr. Samuel Johnson was given his first job in London at St John’s Gate, writing reports for The Gentlemen’s Magazine. At the end of the eighteenth century the Gate was used as a pub, The Old Jerusalem Tavern, where artists and writers, including Charles Dickens, used to meet.

The modern Order of St John in England was granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria in 1888. Humanitarian in its aims and purpose, the modern Order recognised the need for public First Aid and ambulance transport services, as no such system existed in newly industrialised England. In addition, the Order established an eye hospital in Jerusalem, following the principles of the Order’s first hospital, treating all those in need regardless of faith or wealth. The Order’s full title is The Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem. Its principal charitable foundations today are the St John Eye Hospital in Jerusalem, and St John Ambulance.