Revd. G.D. Melhuish - Notes on the History of Ashwater Parish and Church

The Manors.

I have brought the story of the building of the Church to somewhere about the year 1300, and now I am going back to consider what was happening to the two Manors which formed the Parish.

Probably, many of the farms now existing were small outlying holdings long before the Norman Conquest. Just four cob walls for a house, with a rough hedge enclosing a yard where cattle could be sheltered and protected, and there you had the origin of such farms as Grendisworthy and Muckworthy; or, if you had just an out-lying cottage, that would be the origin of Arscott or Hunscott.

Then, in each case, a little plot would be hedged in so that cattle could be kept out and hay be cut; then another little field, and so on, as the wild waste land was gradually tamed. Most of the farm names are very old. No doubt the best land was first occupied, and the colder clay land later. I always suppose that names of farms ending in don, like Braddon or Swingdon, show that they were later settlements when the drier hillside places had been filled up and men were beginning to turn their attention to the higher moorlands, which were called duns, or dons, or downs.

Henford Manor.

When we come to actually recorded facts about the land of the Parish, we find them disappointingly few in the early days after the Conquest. I will take Henford Manor first. You will remember it was taken from Bror, the Saxon, and given to Juhel, the Breton. This Juhel had a large number of Manors given to him by the King. All over Devon you find his name as lord of this or ‘that Manor. In the Hundred of Black Torrington he had the Manor of Clawton, three Manors in Pyworthy, and two in Tetcott. “Juhel, of Totnes,” was his title, and his Manors were spoken of as belonging to the “Honour” of Totnes.

RaIf Pomeroy held Henford under Juhel, but I don’t suppose he lived there, for he too was a Norman noble, and owned a number of Manors as Juhel did; so, no doubt he put a bailiff there who farmed it for him.

There is a quotation, from an ancient deed of the Larkworthy family, given in a Herald’s visitation, which runs as follows :— “ Know, present and to come, that I, William de Hindeford and Alicia, my wife, and Helena, daughter of Osbert de Hindford, render to Richard, son of Simon Larkworthy and his heirs half a furlong of land with its belongings in Larkworthy, to have and to hold to the said Richard and his heirs from us and our heirs.” Date 1226.

A Tax Roll, called Testa de Nevil, made about 1243 A.D. in the list of taxable estates, called Knight’s Fees, in the Honour of Totnes, which Honour then had William de Cantilupe for its lord, gives the following :— Hynford, held by John de Hyndford ¾ Fee.”

A Tax Roll, of 1303, AD., shows that “Hyndeford was held by the heir of Hamelin de Hindeford at that date, and the taxable value as before was ¾ of a Fee.”

From these three records it appears that Henford still belonged to the Honour of Totnes; that the Pomeroys no longer farmed it, but that it was held by a family that had acquired the family name of Hyndeford from the place they lived in ( variously spelt of course).

And lastly, that a man called Simon, who had the surname Larkworthy given him because he lived in the part of Henford Manor that was so named — and probably had been so named for generations — had a son, Richard, who bought Larkworthy from the Henfords.

I might mention that the Larkworthy family lived there up to 1685.

Now as to the Manor of Ashwater.

William the Conqueror granted the Manor of Esse to Geoffery, Bishop of Coutances, in Normandy. Geoffery on his death, in 1093, left it to his nephew, Robert Mowbray, Earl of Northumberland, who rebelled against the King, so the Manor was taken from him and granted to our old and acquisitive friend Juhel. This Manor was part of the Honour of Barnstaple, not of the Honour of Totnes. Juhel held it in 1115.

The Black Book of The Exchequer states that in 1166 the group of Estates constituting the Honour of Barnstaple was held in two moieties by two descendents of Juhel — one by William de Braosa, son of Philip, who was son of William de Braosa, who was grandson of Juhel. The other moiety was held by Oliver de Tracey, son of Henry, whom he succecded in 1165, Henry being grandson of Juhel.

In 1184 this moiety was held by Oliver, son of the first-named Oliver. He arranged with William de Braosa to acquire nearly all estates of the other moiety. Afterwards the Honour of Barnstaple was held by Henry de Tracey, 1210. Then by another Henry de Tracey, then by William Martin, a grandson, next by Nicholas Martin (1327), then by Joanne, his sister, wife of James, Lord Audley, then by other Audleys till, on the death of Nicholas, Lord Audley, 1390 — it reverted to the Crown.

(See, for a fuller account, Devon Association Transactions, Vol. XXXIV., p. 728, in article by the Rev.O. J. Reichel).

These Lords of the Honour of Barnstaple held Manors in that Honour amounting to some 52 Knight’s Fees, Ashwater stood for two Knight’s Fees.

These men were the Feudal Tenants holding directly under the King.

Next month I hope to give various odds and ends of information as to who held Ashwater under them.

The Rev. O. J. Reichel writes that Ashwater belonged to a man called Saunton before 1242, that is the Manor was held by him under the Baron who held it under the King.

Thomas de Santon or Saunton married Ermengarde, daughter and heiress of Fitz Walter. He was her second husband and held Ashwater and Buckland Filleigh in right of his wife.

The Testa de Nevil Tax Roll (about 1243) says that Esse was held by Galfrid de Dunheved and William Avenall under the Tracey Family, (See an article by Mr Whale, former Rector of Dolton - Devonshire Association, Vol. 30 p.203)

Walter of Dunheved, whose name appears as owner of the Manor and patron of the Rectory in 1270, probably was the cause of the name Esse or Aissa being changed to Ashwater— to distinguish it from several other Manors that had the name Esse, for you find the name given as Esse Valteri; then as years went on, Esse Water, Esse Woutier, Ayschewater, Asshewater, Aysshewater Aishwater and in a deed dated 1758 it is spelt Ashwater alias Essewater. In 1302 it was spoken of as the Manor of Exe or the Manor of Esse Fitzwalter. There were 8 or 9 other Manors called Esse in Devon so it was necessary to distinguish them in some way—often in such cases this was done by adding the owner’s name. Just as, one Broadwood was named after the Widger family and another after the Kellys.

A tax Roll of 1303 says that Esse Water was held by Reginald de Bevill and Peter de Donysland. (Devonshire Association, Vol 31, p. 404.)

Pole, who wrote about Devon at the end of Charles the First’s reign, says that Henry Cobham and Walter Dunheved held Ashwater in 1296; that Richard Reavill held one Knight’s fee in 1315, and that Roger Carminow was a holder in 1345. Whether there is some confusion between Richard Reavill and the Reginald de Bevill mentioned above I do not know, it may pnove to be a mis-recording or mis-writing of the same name.

Mr Reichel in Devonshire Association Transactions Vol 41. p 251, quotes a Deed of Ranulf de Blanchminster , dated A.D. 1302 —At Launceston—

“Be it known that I, Ranulf, have granted, remitted and quit claimed for my self and my heirs to Oliver de Halop of Lamorran and Nichola his wife, and their heirs, that they should hold the whole land of Hurtleigh and Le West Downe in the Manor of Esse FitzWalter.’

He quotes another deed on the same subject of about 1312 :— I Isabella relict of the Lord Ranulf de Blanchminster, in my widowhood, of my own proper right have given and granted and by this present deed have confirmed to Nichola my daughter, all my land of Hurtlege and La Done in the Manor of Exe (Esse) with all things belonging etc., rendering to me and my heirs therefrom one pair of gloves at the Feast of St. Michael for all service, plaint exaction and demand etc., — if Nichola die without children then Joan, if Joan so die then Cecilia.

Hurtleigh is in Buckland Filleigh. La Done is Norman French for West Down in Ashwater.

Changes seem to have been plentiful in those early days.

Pole, whom I quoted last month as saying that Roger Carminow had Ashwater Manor in 1345, goes on to say that it continued in that name till the death of Thomas Carminow, 1443. He 1eft it to his daughter, Joan, who married first Sir Thomas Carew, of Mohun’s, Ottery and second, Halnathe Maleverer,(High Sheriff of Cornwall, 1461—1462). This Thomas Carminow, whose monument is in Ashwater Church, was the son of Sir William Carminow, of Boconnock. He was Sheriff of Cornwall 1423—1429, M.P. for Cornwall 1426—1435, M.P. for Devon 1442. His daughter, Margaret, married Sir Hugh Courtenay, who was killed at, or soon after the Battle of Tewkesbury. She was 20 years old when her father died. Joan, her sister, was 15. Joan died on June 22nd, 1512. Her son by her first marriage, Nicholas Carew, died before her and was buried in Westminster Abbey, her grandson, Sir Edward succeeded her. After him came Sir William, and then Sir Peter, who died in 1575, after having sold the Manor of Ashwater to the Carys, who sprang from Cary Barton in St. Giles.