diff --git a/src/test/java/org/springframework/data/gemfire/config/TemplateRegionDefinitionOrderErrorNamespaceTest.java b/src/test/java/org/springframework/data/gemfire/config/TemplateRegionDefinitionOrderErrorNamespaceTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..2651d939
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/java/org/springframework/data/gemfire/config/TemplateRegionDefinitionOrderErrorNamespaceTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2010-2013 the original author or authors.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *       http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.springframework.data.gemfire.config;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
+
+import java.io.File;
+
+import org.junit.Test;
+import org.springframework.beans.factory.parsing.BeanDefinitionParsingException;
+import org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext;
+
+/**
+ * The TemplateRegionDefinitionOrderErrorNamespaceTest class is a test suite of test cases testing the contract
+ * and functionality of Region Templates, and specifically the correct order definition of Region Templates before
+ * the Region bean definitions and concrete types that use those templates.
+ *
+ * @author John Blum
+ * @see org.junit.Test
+ * @see org.junit.runner.RunWith
+ * @see org.springframework.data.gemfire.test.GemfireTestApplicationContextInitializer
+ * @see org.springframework.test.context.ContextConfiguration
+ * @see org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner
+ * @since 1.5.0
+ */
+public class TemplateRegionDefinitionOrderErrorNamespaceTest {
+
+	protected String getConfigLocation() {
+		return getClass().getName().replaceAll("\\.", File.separator).concat("-context.xml");
+	}
+
+	@Test(expected = BeanDefinitionParsingException.class)
+	public void testIncorrectTemplateRegionDefinitionOrder() throws Exception {
+		try {
+			new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext(getConfigLocation());
+		}
+		catch (BeanDefinitionParsingException expected) {
+			assertTrue(expected.getMessage().contains(
+				"The Region template [RegionTemplate] must be 'defined before' the Region [TemplateBasedPartitionRegion] referring to the template!"));
+			throw expected;
+		}
+	}
+
+}
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/springframework/data/gemfire/config/TemplateRegionsNamespaceTests.java b/src/test/java/org/springframework/data/gemfire/config/TemplateRegionsNamespaceTests.java
index a2eedf2a..32e03d5d 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/springframework/data/gemfire/config/TemplateRegionsNamespaceTests.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/springframework/data/gemfire/config/TemplateRegionsNamespaceTests.java
@@ -70,7 +70,8 @@ import com.gemstone.gemfire.cache.util.ObjectSizer;
 import com.gemstone.gemfire.distributed.Role;
 
 /**
- * The TemplateRegionsNamespaceTests class...
+ * The TemplateRegionsNamespaceTests class is a test suite of test cases testing the functionality and support for
+ * Region Templating in Spring Data GemFire.
  *
  * @author John Blum
  * @see org.junit.Test
diff --git a/src/test/resources/org/springframework/data/gemfire/config/TemplateRegionDefinitionOrderErrorNamespaceTest-context.xml b/src/test/resources/org/springframework/data/gemfire/config/TemplateRegionDefinitionOrderErrorNamespaceTest-context.xml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..73a48a74
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/resources/org/springframework/data/gemfire/config/TemplateRegionDefinitionOrderErrorNamespaceTest-context.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
+	   xmlns:gfe="http://www.springframework.org/schema/gemfire"
+	   xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+	   xsi:schemaLocation="
+		http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
+	   	http://www.springframework.org/schema/gemfire http://www.springframework.org/schema/gemfire/spring-gemfire.xsd
+">
+
+	<gfe:cache/>
+	<gfe:partitioned-region id="TemplateBasedPartitionRegion" template="RegionTemplate"/>
+	<gfe:region-template id="RegionTemplate" persistent="false"/>
+
+</beans>