Although Headcorn does not appear in the Domesday Book of 1086, the Domesday Monachorum (the ecclesiastical survey made at about the same time), records the existence of a church at "Hedekaruna". According to the "Oxford Names Companion", the name could possibly mean 'tree-trunk (used as a footbridge) of a man called Hydeca'. Henry of Ospringe, was appointed the first rector in 1222 by King Henry III. However, in 1239, the King gave the den of Headcorn, with the rectorial endowments, to the Maison Dieu at Ospringe, near Faversham. In 1251, the Master and Brethren of Ospringe, were granted a weekly market on Thursdays and an annual fair at Headcorn on 29 June, St Peter and St Paul's Day. In 1482 the Ospringe house was dissolved and in 1516, St John's College Cambridge, was given the Maison Dieu properties. The fair was later held on 12 June, having apparently been merged with the Trinity-tide fair of Moatenden Priory. The Trinitarian Order, or Order of the Holy Trinity for the Redemption of Captives, was founded in France in 1198. Among the first of the dozen houses it established in England, was Moatenden Priory dating from 1224. The site is off Maidstone Road Headcorn. In 1536, the priory was suppressed, among England's smaller houses, and its revenues went to the King. The site was partially excavated by Neil Aldridge along with others of the Kent Archaeological Society and the site of the priory church and other structures including the cloister garth were recorded beneath the garden of the present house which incorporates part of the Medieval western range of the priory. This was published in Archaeologia Cantiana for 1995. The pottery from the excavation site dates from the 13th–15th centuries, there were also three lead papal seals from the site. The site is surrounded by a large moat and a number of monastic fishponds also survive . The former course of the Maidstone to Rye road passed alongside the site of the priory.During the excavations earlier material including Roman pottery and a coin was found at Moatenden indicating settlement here over an extended period. The prosperity brought to Headcorn by the weaving industry, established in the reign of King Edward III, is reflected in the houses built at that time and the enlargement of the Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul.