Embedded Files
Stokenham appears is several records associated with the Pomeroy family.
St Michael's church is mainly late medieval with traces of early 14th century .
The Manor was held by the Mortimer family Roger Mortimer, 2nd earl of March (1328-1360). He was born at Ludlow, growing up in the household of his stepfather, the earl of Northampton, He was knighted, with the Black Prince, in 1346 at the start of the Crecy campaign . He became one of the founder members of the Order of the Garter.
In 1348 he was summoned to Parliament, and in 1354 his grandfather’s earldom was conferred upon him. In 1354 he agreed with the earl of Arundel on a settlement concerning the dubious inheritance of Mortimer estates. In 1356, he released all his right to the castle of Chirk and the lordship of Chirkland to the earl of Arundel, to whom it had been granted. He died at Rouvray on the expedition of 1359-60, He married Philippa Montagu (d. 1382), daughter of the earl of Salisbury, and by her had at least one son and there is a connection through Montague's with Warlbington in Hampshire. but any Pomeroy connection remains obscure.
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In 1543 Henry VIII gave Stokenham Manor to Lady Katherine, PARR as part of her marriage dower. She was his sixth & final wife, the one that survived the marriage. When Henry died in 1547 Katherine had her officials to make an exact assessment of the rental income she would get from Stokenham. The ‘rental’ contributed to a useful document studying of Stokenham’s history.
IPM Thomas Gyll: Thomas Gyll held Bowden at Totnes, along with holdings in Great and Little Totnes, Stokenham, Loddiswell; Fen Ottery, Churchstowe, Averton Gifford, 1/3rd of Widecombe in Stokenham. Also Bloudon & Tibbycombe.
The barton of Hatch Aurudell was in Manor of Loddiswell. In 1462 Sept 20, Thomas Gille, the younger, esquire (Thomas Gill) was granted, by Edward IV, (In year 2 of his reign) a Royal licence to crenellate Haicche Arundell (Hatch Manor House, Loddiswell) It later went to Carswells who were cousins of Gyll
7th Sir Guy de Bryan,( the father of Sir Philip who died in 1387 a year after he married Joanna Chudleigh; who in 1388 married Thomas Pomeroy Esq ), presented to Torbryan Rectory in 1353,1 but apparently never resided in that parish. He had a residence at Pool in Slapton and another at Woodsford in Dorset.
Between 1377 and 1387 he made large grants to Slapton Priory, including the advowsons of Loddiswell, acquired by him in 1381, and Poundstock . He died in 1390
Kenedon on the Sherford Road from Frogmore on A375 road with Kenedon Mill adjacent
On the 18th of March in 1547 a special session of the manorial court was held at Stokenham. To this court of the Lady Katherine, Queen Dowager, representatives came from all her tenants in Stokenham and the villages surrounding the manor. The Queen Dowager’s steward, in charge of the court, assembled, with the help of those attending, a complete list of all the parts of the manor, the names of those who occupied each part and the rental which they were paying.
Other records Mention made of STOKENHAM in the IPM of Agnes Bowring of Bowringsleigh, widow of Pomeroy nee Huckmore
The 1519 IPM of Agnes Bowring Widow of Thomas Pomeroy nee Huckmore mentions that she held the manor of Stokenham for £6 a year from Countess of Salisbury –( Margaret Plantagenet, daughter of George Duke of Clarence, wife of Sir Richard Pole and mother of Reginald Pole -she was executed for treason in 1541 & later beatified) Research seems to indicate she held lands within the parish rather than the Royal Manor lands.
Agnes Bowring ( nee Huckmore widow Pomeoy) also seized of Bowden Manor which she granted to Thomasine her daughter & her husband William Barrett .
Stokenham Priory - see right hand column
2006 Archaeological research into medieval and Tudor manor house abandoned in the 1580s within ‘Manor Field’ immediately to the east of the church. Stokenham manor house, abandoned in 1585 but possibly dating back to at least the 12th century.
The church of Stokenham is thought to represent the Anglo-Saxon minster church of Coleridge hundred, whose royal estate centre was 1.5km to the west at Chillington.
QUEEN KATHERINES Parrs RENTAL: 1547 mentions that towards the end of his reign quote “ Henry VIII gave Stokenham Manor to Katherine,(PARR) his sixth and final bride, as part of her marriage dowry. He had previously given it to Anne of Cleves the 4th wife whose marriage to Henry VIII was annulled.
When Henry died in 1547 the Dowager Queen, Katherine Parr (who very quickly married her long time love interest the dubious and self seeking Admiral Sir Thomas Seymour & then quickly died in childbirth ) caused her officials to make an exact assessment of the rental income she would get from Stokenham. The ‘rental’ which resulted is a useful document in the study of Stokenham’s history.
On the 18th of March in 1547 a special session of the manorial court was held at Stokenham. To this court of the Lady Katherine, Queen Dowager (d 1548 in childbirth) came representatives of all her tenants from Stokenham town and the surrounding villages of the manor.
The Queen Dowager’s steward, in charge of the court, assembled, with the help of those attending, a complete list of all the parts of the manor, the names of those who occupied each part and the rental which they were paying.
There is a paper which is a summary and discussion of Queen Katherine’s Rental. The rental is a useful document for the study of Stokenham in Tudor times.
Henry VIII gave Stokenham to his final queen, Catherine Parr, as her as part of her Dower ,
a Dowry came in with the bride ; Dowers went out as the maintenance of a widow after her husband died .
Henry died in January 1547 & 6 months later Catherine Parr married Tom Seymour - her properties became his ; she died in childbirth 10 months later & he got chopped for treason a year later ...& into the Seymour pot Stokenham dropped !
2nd layer of property 'ownership' is Gylle held it from the Crown......Anna Cammel married him as her 2nd husband & got the lot when Gylle died - this was carried her into her last marriage to Henry Pomeroy .....and on to his son Thomas...
Henry VIII also gave it as Dower to another wife - Anne of Cleaves - she must have had to give it back - she lived for 10 years after the king Henry.
Notable residents of West Alvington
Thomas Bowring (died 1504), Lord Chief Justice of Ireland and the principal local landowner.
Robert Bowring (died 1514) eldest son of Thomas, MP for Plymouth.
Here was lovely hunt with a possible ( reasonable) conclusion
Devon Record Office 3799M-0/ET/23/2
1355 Contents: Grant for 11 years
1. Henry of la Pomeray, lord of Bury
2. John Wyckyng
one virgate of land of the (30 acres ) in the ward of Bymdon lying on the north side of the road leading from STOKENHAM to Kingsbridge in length, of which one headland reaches to the lord's meadow
AJP searched every available map looking for Bymdon, both on-line; olde & new maps & OS paper maps of the area, and found nothing, not even a hint of the 30 acres referred to & concluded it must have either vanished for some reason OR the transcribers got it wrong and it had a different name -
so what else might it have been called ?
In the days of scribes writing what they thought they heard it is just possible it was misheard & possibly mistranscribed, was in fact Kynedon Barton & Mill
or simply that it was written in such a way that B & K look similar.
It lies exactly as described in the record on the north side of the road leading from STOKENHAM to Kingsbridge .
Keynedon is a small but significant late medieval manor house a mile from Sherford ; at one time noted for its stained heraldic windows; it is described as an early C15th quadrangular house with three gateways, one with a tower that was standing until about C18th.
The thickness of the walls of the present porch suggest they are the remains of an original tower. seen below
The walls of a barn may represent the chapel. Now mainly Tudor and formerly the residence of the Halse family who built the present house in the C15th
The Halse were a family with a considerable number of churchmen in their ranks, including one Canon of Exeter and another who was Bishop of Lichfield & Dean of Exeter Cathedral
There are Visitations for Hals/ Halse of Keynedon
Keynedon Gatehouse Gazateer
Forecourt walls, remains of gateway and barn to Keynedon Farmhouse. C15, barn probably C17. Slate stone rubble walls. The battlemented wall still shows on the south side but on the north it has been concealed by the building of the barn probably in the C17. The moulded jambs of the main gate on the East side still survive as high as the springing and the wall to the side of it has a chamfered plinth and moulded string. The C15 gate-tower above the arch was demolished in the late C19. (Listed Building Report)
At the beginning of the 16th century the open area to the front of the house was enclosed on its fourth side by a curtain wall containing a gateway or gatehouse, creating a more formal entrance court. The wall is built of high quality slate ashlar, and aligned on the front door is a wide gateway with heavy double roll-moulded jambs. Springers for a flattened segmental or four-centred arch survive. A draw-bar hole survives in the south jamb. To the south of the gate is a scar where a wall flanking the gateway has been removed. This may have formed the south wall of a gatehouse. (Devon and Dartmoor HER ref. Waterhouse)
here is a connection
The Hales were a baronial family of Saxon origin . There are a great many churchmen of various degrees in their pedigree . A Halse was mentioned in connection with Gylle as well as John Attwill of Exeter and John Aleyne of Poole.
Thomas Gylle bought Bowden manor from Richard Pomeroy of Bowden a merchant of Totnes, & Gylle's widow Anna Camell, carried it back into the Pomeroy family when she married Baron Henry Pomeroy in 1478.
John Rolle (born 1563) in 1603 married Phillipa Halse (d.1655), daughter of Richard Halse of Keynedon. Their eldest son was Henry Rolle who married Margaret Ford, daughter of John Ford (died 1538) of Ashburton & half sister of John Ford who married Mary Pomeroy 1566 & Henry Rolle's sister was Honor who married Thomas Pomeroy
Here is Keynedon Barton in the hands of an expert Stonemason
https://qualifiedstonemason.com/portfolio/stonewalling/keynedon-barton/
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Garston & Bowden House close to Totnes
which was the hub of social & merchantile activity
although there is another Bowden hear Kingsbridge , close to Stokenham. In all there are 30 places, farms mainly called Bowden listed in Devon
GARSTON; after the Dissolution of the Monasteries between 1530 - 1541
C 1/1058/70 John RYDGEWAY v. Richard POMERAY, esquire.: Grange of Garston, part of the demesnes of the late priory of Totnes.: DEVON. 1538-1544
C 3/170/65 Short title: Savery v Savery. Plaintiffs: Richard Savery. Defendants: Christopher Savery and another. Subject: manors of Little Totnes and Rattery; rectory of Rattery; and property in Great Totnes, Garston, Berry Pomeroy and Dartington, Devon. Document type: [pleadings]. 1558-1579
Date: 1544 - 1551 Source: The Catalogue of The National Archives ( found by AML)
C 1/1058/70 John RYDGEWAY v. Richard POMERAY, esquire
Grange of Garston, part of the demesnes of the late priory of Totnes.:
DEVON. 26 June 1543: Sir Edward North, 521 pounds..purchase money of Totnes and Garston, Brixham alias Upon in Brixham( Upper Brixham) , Indenture. Garston, Totnes Priory Previously owned by John Champernon and John Ridgeway, gent. . Smith was Totnes merchant.
Deeds disposing of Priory Lands after the Dissolution
2779 M/1/3 1538 Contents: Arbitration
1. Richard Pomerye of Bowdon, Esq.
2. John Pelyton and Roger Crowte of Great Tottenes
Premises: certain messuages, lands and tenements in Blawden and Tibicombe
Award in favour of 1. 2. to quitclaim to 1. their rights in the lands - support 1.'s title and hand over any deeds in return for 40 marks paid to them by 1.
Contents: Lease for 2000 years
1. John Prowse of Totnes, gentleman and Katheren his wife
2. John Giles of Bowdon, Esq. ( The wealthiestwool merchant in Totnes who had bought Bowden Manor from Richard Pomeroy )
Premises: three closes, two called Goddicroft containing 40 acres, one called Brocks Parke containing 10 acres, one meadow called Ven Meadowe lying between Goddicroft and Brocks Parke, all now or lately in the tenure of Richard Pomarye, Esq., lying in Totnes
Annual Rent: One grain of wheat
Seals: 2, (1 damaged)
From the King to Champernon, Rydgeway and Walter Smyth.
1542: Katharine Champernon receives lease of Totnes Priory, Garston Grange. grants lease
Richard Pomeroy held lease of the Grange at Garston of ( from) Champernoun, (C 1/1058/70) who purchased a 25 year lease of the Manor of Little Totnes from John Ford; Both were church properties subject to closure and made available by the King.
Allington & Chillington were Royal manors & Kingsbridge town arose around the bridge between the two. The manor of Kingsbridge was held by Buckfast Abbey, as part of Churchstow
Garston is on the old Kingsbridge road just within the Totnes parish boundaries
East Allington is 4 miles NE of Kingsbridge a village close to Fallapit House seat of Fortesques
Garston near Bowden in Totnes
GERSTON Manor & Farm are in West Alvington near Kingsbridge and has a record trace indicating otherwise.
Historically the family seat of the Bastard family, holders of nine manors in Devon in the Domesday Book. It has been suggested that the Bastards lived at Gerston Manor for several centuries after the Conquest, and that the current farmhouse probably stands on the former manor house site.
The family's standing in the area was resurgent in the late C16, and at the turn of the C17 William Bastard became MP for Dartmouth. The family seat became re-established at Gerston at around this time, roughly contemporary with the rebuilding of the house.
STOKENHAM is close to Slapton Ley on the coast just south of Dartmouth on the road between Kingsbridge and the coast at Torcross. Today Stokenham is a quiet little place with almost all evidence of past importance lost over time ; the C19th population was 1619 , however the huge church is evidence of a significant past
STOKENHAM is close to Slapton Ley on the coast just south of Dartmouth on the road between Kingsbridge and the coast at Torcross. Today Stokenham is a quiet little place with almost all evidence of past importance lost over time ; the C19th population was 1619 , however the huge church is evidence of a significant past
Sir Frances Drake obtained the advowson of Stokenham Church from Queen Elizabeth I for Francis Fletcher who had been chaplain on the Golden Hind.
The site of the former Stokenham manor house lies adjacent to the church. It has previously incorrectly been described as 'Site of Priory'.
Stokenham manor house had been in use since the 12th century, & abandoned as a dwelling around 1585 when the manor was sold to the Amerideths of Slapton who did not use the house. By 1620 Risdon describes the house as a ruin. The site is now visible as undulations and earthworks in the field next to Stokenham church.
SLAPTON & Slapton LEY _ Has its own history with a chantry SX8245 and SX 8244 -
The chantry including coach house, stables and cart-shed range to north some remains of the medieval collegiate chantry (Tower of Collegiate Chantry of St Mary ) The manor has been held by the Fitzjohns, Fitzherbert, Courtenays, Hastings, and Carys, and was sold by the latter to the Newmans. manor of Kellaton,- Coleridge was a royal manor
Slapton made newsworthy in these days of global warming by the washing away of slender coastal road during winter storms - not forgetting the secret it kept for 50 years of the D-Day practice landings that went so disastrously wrong during WWII
Heritage Gateway 2007, Stokenham '07 (Report - Excavation). SDV342104.
Archaeological Excavation to explore the medieval and Tudor manor house abandoned in the 16th century in Manor Field to the east of Stokenham parish church.
Trench 1 was 25 metres long by 5 metres wide and revealed the remains of one of the rooms of the manor house with substantial wall foundations suggesting a building of at least two storeys. A surviving fireplace was exposed with artefacts dating to the 14th and 16th centuries and a collapsed sculpted sandstone window pieces suggested a high status building.
Demolition material included decorated ceramic ridge tiles and flagstones and tiles decorated with a fish design possibly from the manor's chapel. Mortared drains were also exposed. Artefacts recovered included medieval iron nails, horseshoes, buckles and brooches.
Trench 2 was 10 metres long by 3 metres wide revealed the midden identified during the field-walking survey in 2005.
The dark soil contained animal bones, oyster shells, bronze pins and metalworking evidence. The walls of a building on a flattened terrace and a mettled road were also exposed. The alignment of the road suggests it was one of the main routes into the manorial complex.
Trench 3 was 2 metres by 2 metres and investigated an intersection of ditches identified in the geophysical survey. Medieval material was recovered from the ditch fills.
GENUKI - STOKENHAM, or Stockingham includes Chillington, Beeson, Beesands, Halsands, Kellaton, or Kellington, and Torcross, several of them are fishing villages, and the hamlets of Bickerton, Dunstone, Cornborough, and scattered houses.
It belonged in the time of King John 1199 ( 12th C) to Matther Fitz Herbert then the crown and passed to Courtenay as the honor of Plympton - Edward I gave it to Ralph Mortimer, his son in law from him it descended to Montecute and Poole to Hastings Earl of Huntingdon who sold it to Ameridith who connects to Pomeroy via Fortscue - Widdecomb, in this parish, was a seat of the Heles.
There is an unusually rich body of documentary evidence relating to settlement and economy for the medieval parish of Stokenham (Fox 2001; Finberg 1950-1; Roberts 1979).
This provides a rare opportunity to link the surviving archaeological remains with this historical information for a persistent locus of medieval power and belief.
The initial results suggests there are remains of medieval peasant farm buildings located adjacent to the medieval and Tudor manor house. The house is the shippon – the lower end cattle byre – of a longhouse. Meanwhile, the W-E aligned wall indicates a later addition of a bed chamber to an existing single-roomed N-S aligned longhouse.
The size of population in medieval times suggest economic wealth but the early manor was ruinous by 1610 but it seems the the church was the Anglo Saxon minster. In the middle ages the nave was used for civil as well as religious purposes and was the centre of village life. Pews had not yet been installed and here magistrates dispensed justice, folk dancing was not uncommon, and food was often provided.
Arms were stored in the church and it is said that bows and arrows were found amongst its roof timbers.
Folklore has it that in early times a wedding could take place in the church porch sometimes with the unwilling girl , the bride, held at sword point.
NOTES
Alvington and Chillington were valuable Royal Manor from Domesday and the town of Kingsbridge arose close to the bridge over the river that separated the two manors at the head of the Salcombe Estuary.
STOKENHAM Priory estate in 17th C belonged to Sir Gregory Norton
Coleridge, is a handsome new mansion, in the Elizabethan style, the seat of John Allen, Esq
The Nicholls, Edmunds, Pitts, Randall, Cole, and other families have estates in the parish, mostly freehold.
The Church (St. Barnabas,) is a large antique structure, with a low tower and six bells.
The Rectorial tithes of STOKENHAM were given to Anne of Cleves in 1539 for her support after her marriage to Henry VIII was annulled.
STOKENHAM seems to have been a place of some significance . It had a minster church - defined thus - a minster is a church attached to a monastery or established during Anglo-Saxon times as a missionary teaching church.
There has been a great deal of archeology done in Stokenham because the church is Huge compared to the size of the settlement around it.
Lands in Bowdon ( Stokenham ) held by Countess (Salisbury). , worth 13s 50.
AML found that William and Thomasine Barrett were still seized of the premises. The manor of Bowden held by Margaret Countess of Salisbury and her manor of STOKENHAM worth by the year £1/2 /6.
Lands in Tybbecombe are held by John Holwey and Henry Walrons worth 40 s. a year.
Stokenham came to the Pomeroys from GYLL In addition to Bowden, Ashprington and Langton.
Dartmouth merchant Thomas Gyll senior; Mayor of that busy port and collector of harbour dues & taxes, had properties in Great and Little Totnes, Stokenham, Loddiswell; Fenne, Churchstowe, Averton Gifford, 1/3rd of Widecombe in Stokenham. Also Bloudon & Tibbycombe.
Anna/Amy Cammel as a lady of independent wealth with control over her own properties and money made a 2nd marriag. Thomas GYLL, the younger, of Woodhuish,& Hacch Arundel near Loddiswell in the South Hams of Devon & a merchant like his father.
From this marriage that Anna had Bowden at Totnes & Stokenham, with other properties in the Totnes area.
Her only daughter Joanna Barrett married William Kelloway and her granddaughter Agnes Kelloway was married to Thomas Pomeroy son of her 3rd husband Henry Pomeroy. whose daughter Thomasine married a William Barrett.
Amy /Anna Cammell was widow of 1st Henry Barrett & 2ndly of Thomas Gylle , of Hacche Arundel ( Hatch) near Loddiswell a Dartmouth merchant who died in about 1476, chose as her 3rd husband Baron Henry Pomeroy .
She is recorded by Vivian as having one child, a daughter Joanna Barrett , who married William Kelloway & their daughter Agnes Kelloway married Thomas Pomeroy the 3rd son of Amy/Anna Camells 3rd husband .
However it seems she may have had a child by her 3rd husband
Anna /Amy had no children by Gylle and married Baron Sir Henry Pomeroy as an independently wealthy lady. In 1481 they may have had a son Henry, with Anna dying at that time . After his father Baron Sir Henry died in 1487 the orphaned Henry , who would have been about 6 years old, may have gone into the household of his much older half brother, Thomas Pomeroy & his wife Agnes Kelloway who had married in 1478 and had sons.
STOKENHAM: One month from St Michael, 21 Henry VI [27 October 1442].
Parties: querents, Thomas Gylle, John Burhed' and Thomas Bosse,
deforciants. William Quatford' and Christian, his wife,
Property: 3 messuages and 3 carucates of land in Fenne, Chirchestowe and Aueton' Gyffard' and a third part of the manor of Wydecomb' in Stokenham.
(Averton Giffard is near Modbury & not far from Agnes Huckmore widow Pomeroy Lady Bowring, home at Bowringsleigh ) Pomeroys )
In 1547 Richard Pomeroy sold WOODLEIGH, which was part of Stokenham.. He also sold Combe.
WOODLEIGH 3½ miles north from Kingsbridge, note that it is not far from Fallapit which was & still is a FORTESCUE property
Garston Grange
Despite an extensive search I have not found Garston Grange listed in English Heritage.
It is a farm now, and lies on the A381 just after it crosses Green Lane at Bowden Cross. From the satellite images there appears to be evidence of the grange farm & the property still includes a very large fish pond. It is very close to Bowden House home of Richard Pomeroy until about 1589
2779 M/1/3 1538 Contents: Arbitration
1. Richard Pomerye of Bowdon, Esq.
2. John Pelyton and Roger Crowte of Great Tottenes
Premises: certain messuages, lands and tenements in Blawden and Tibicombe
Award in favour of Pomeroye . Pelyton & Crowte to quitclaim to Pomeroye their rights in the lands - support Pomeroye's title and hand over any deeds in return for 40 marks paid to them by Pomeroye
.
C 1/1058/70 John RYDGEWAY v. Richard POMERAY, esquire.: Grange of Garston, part of the demesnes of the late priory of Totnes.: DEVON. 1538-1544
C 3/170/65 Savery v Savery. Plaintiffs:
Richard Savery. Defendants: Christopher Savery and another.
Subject: manors of Little Totnes and Rattery; rectory of Rattery( near Ashburton) ; and property in Great Totnes, Garston, Berry Pomeroy and Dartington, Devon. Document type: [pleadings]. 1558-1579
Date: 1544 - 1551 Source: The Catalogue of The National Archives
C 1/1058/70 John RYDGEWAY v. Richard POMERAY, esquire Grange of Garston, part of the demesnes of the late priory of Totnes.:
DEVON. 26 June 1543: Sir Edward North, £521 purchase money of Totnes and Garston, Brixham alias Upon in Brixham( Upper Brixham) ,
Indenture. Garston, Totnes Priory Previously owned by John Champernon and John Ridgeway, gent.
Deeds disposing of Priory Lands after the Dissolution
Contents: Lease for 2000 years
1. John Prowse of Totnes, gentleman and Katheren his wife
2. John Giles of Bowdon, Esq.
Premises: three closes, two called Goddicroft containing 40 acres, one called Brocks Parke containing 10 acres, one meadow called Ven Meadowe lying between Goddicroft and Brocks Parke, all now or lately in the tenure of Richard Pomarye, Esq., lying in Totnes
Annual Rent: One grain of wheat : Seals: 2, (1 damaged)
From (the) King to Champernon, Rydgeway and Walter Smyth.
1542: Katharine Champernon receives lease of Totnes Priory, Garston Grange. grants lease
Kingsbridge Quay. AJP 1975
Kingsbridge High Street
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