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In 1523 Totnes in Devon at the head of the Dart estuary was the second richest town in Devon, and the sixteenth richest in England, ahead of Worcester, Gloucester and Lincoln.
In 1553, King Edward VI granted Totnes a charter allowing a former Benedictine priory building that had been founded in 1088 to be used as Totnes Guildhall and a school. In 1624, the Guildhall was converted to be a magistrate's court. The two main suburbs of Totnes- Little Totnes, were located on a continuation of High Street beyond the West Gate, where the Rotherfold, the cattle market ,in an area that originally extended from where Leechwell Street leaves High Street to where the Lamb Inn is today.
The other suburb centered on Follaton Manor owned by Totnes Prior which sat astride old Plymouth Road, the original line of the road leading directly from the West Gate, although this was changed when the burgage plots of Little Totnes were laid out.
1238 William de la Pomeroy & wife Joan feet of fines ( Not sure who he was)
William Pomeroy and Joan may be connected to Henry Pomeroy and Joan Valletort (as per Visitations) where she is described in Visitations as Joan Valletort sister of Roger de Valletort & daughter of Reginald 1491
1199 Henry de la Pomeroy owed 800 marks for livery of his lands of which Alice de Valletort paid 400 marks in 1209.. She may have been his mother in law.
1346 Henry Pomeroy held 2 manors of Bradford for ½ fee of the manor of Harberton which Henry Wydger formerly held
1428 Godfrey Wyndesey Middlecote held ½ fee in Bradford and Middlecote no-one holding an entire ¼ part of the manors formerly held by Henry Pomeroy
1368 Henry Pomeroy (wife Emmot , he was eldest son of Henry & Joanna Moles . Died 1375 seized of ½ Brixham, ½ Harberton
Transcribed for Hugh Watkins 1917 book The History of Totnes Priory & the Medieval Town
1305 Henry de la Pomerai wife Amica de Camville - died sized of Bradford
1346 Henry held for ½ a fee the honour of Harberton formerly held by Henry Widger
He died 1375 seized of Bowden and more Veteris Ponte – he held one fee in 1245 after ¼ of fee was given to Knights Templar
1489 Richard Edgecombe knight ,died 7th September 1489 his son Piers age 21 , sized of Totnes Castle, manor and free borough with 28 knights fees and 1/46 of South Wasshe, Brixton, Rydmore, North Bovey, Hempton Cantelowe. Wodeford, Radon, & Allerford. The advowson of priory of Totnes and Warlord ??
of Totnes, Manor of Cornworthy and income from South Wasshe.
(Piers Edgecumbe's daughter Joan married Sir Thomas Pomeroy who became Baron Pomeroy in 1538 & sold the Barony & its estates in 1547 )
1463 Bury Pomeroy, Tithes of Berry Longcombe, Nytheron, Afferton.
12 tithes from Bartholomew Tailor, Richard Greenway, Matt hewTailor, Willm Gylherd, Jonanus Tailor, Rich’d Breeton, John and Janet Cole, John Miller sen. Willm Hougher, Rich’r Perry, Rich’d Perry, sen & jun. Robert Courtice.
1493 Thomas Pomeroy (3rd son of Henry Pomeroy & his 1st wife Alice Raleigh ) Wife Agnes Kelloway . He died Saturday after Christmas 9th year of Henry VII 1493- His heir was 12 year old Henry born about 1481 seems to have died befre his father.
. IPM 10th April 1494 Henry Pomeroy died sized of 1 messuage 300 acres 730 acres of meadow in Bowden, Ivecombe, Langdon worth £10 held from Piers Edgecombe. As of castle of Totnes in free scocage. 20 acres of land 50 acres of meadow in Ivecombe worth 16 shillings held from Nickolas Holeway and Humphrey Walrond in free socage .
His older brother the baron Sir Richard died 1496
1496 Richard Pomeroy knt. son of Henry died 14 Aug 1496 widow Elizabeth (Denzil) and son Edward his heir age 17. Richard died seized of castle and manor of Bury worth £133 6 shillings and 10 pence- held from the Crown in knights service. A moiety of the manor of Harberton and a messuage of 40 acres &10 acres of meadow in Harberton worth 45 shillings /4 ½ penny held from the Crown in Chief knights service.
A moiety of manor of Brixham worth £14 / 6 shillings and 6 pence.
A moiety of the manor of Bridgetown Pomeroy worth £24 /4 shillings and 5 pence form the king in knights service.
A messuage of 24 acres of land 7 acres of meadow and 10 acres of underwood in Sandridge worth £ 11 from the Bishop of Exeter by knights service
3 messuages of 40 acres of land an acre of meadow in Will or Wyle worth 52 shillings or
£2 /12 shillings from Bishop of Exeter by knights service.
His wife Lady Elizabeth (nee Denzil widow Fortescue ) was assigned 1/3 of the Honour of the Castle of bury of the capital messuage of the barton of the manor ( the principal dwelling with its surrounding land etc) and of the lands & tenements of the manor of Bury and a tenement and all the services of rents of the manor of Harberton
Bowden Estate is close to Totnes
Veteris Ponte translate as Old Bridge except Bowden estate is not on the river . This might refer to the bridge between Totnes & Bridgetown Pomeroy
1503 South Sydynham manor or advowson help by Edward Pomeroy in knights service
4th Sept agreement arrived at in suit between Sir Edward Pomeroy knight & Geoffrey Hawkeswell manor of Totnes and others- Arbiters appointed were Robt Willoby Lord Brooke, Sir Humphrey Fulford knight & Thomas Cotterel esq.
Each party to forgive the other and Sir Edw’d Pomeroy shall give to the mayor and his brethren a buck ( deer) of this seasons to be eaten at Totnes on the following Wednesday after the feast of the Nativity. Provided that Sir Edw’d Pomeroy be eating the same buck in godly manner.
Further more we award that the Mayor and his brethren shall pay for the wine that shall be drunk at the eating of the same buck
1509 Quitclaim William Nosworthy son and heir of Johan Nosworthy quit claimed to Edward Pomeroy knt all his right to the whole tenement of acre of his land in Bridgetown Pomeroy.
The wealth of Totnes came mainly from wool and the little town abounded with merchants - rich men on the way to making vast fortunes from raw wool at first and later from wool cloth, straight whites, woven on looms set up upstairs rooms - rooms which still have triple windows in their frontage - which can be seen on the first floors of the buildings all along Butterwalk -
Merchants lived over the shop and there were Pomeroys amongst them -probably younger son of the Barons Pomeroy who until 1547 lived a mile or so away at Berry Pomeroy Castle - younger son often had to make their own way -and being close to a busy wealthy town like Totnes must have been not only exciting but useful !
The merchant class was a close knit one, interrelated by marriage, there were around a hundred merchants at any one time in the town through many generations. One in every twenty families was likely to be a merchant family. In Exeter there were names such as Thomas Prestwood, who came from Worcester and John Bodley whose widow this gentleman married; Thomas Bodley grandson of John and Nicholas Ball of Totnes, one of the richest towns in England, a trader in pilchards. There was also Thomas Richardson a wine merchant who came from Leicestershire, a merchant adventurer and keeper of a wine tavern.\
There were also humble men made wealthy by clever trading and shrewd investments, men who carried name such as Peryam, Midwinter, Blackall or Blackallers, Martins and Spicers all successful merchant in Exeter during the time of Elizabeth I. 1558-1601.
In Totnes there was John Gyles who became a Merchant Stapler and the richest man in Devon. A man who bought an ancient property in the country not far from Totnes and either built a new house or enlarges the old one, Bowden House.
There were men like Richard Pomeroy with his wife Alice whose mother Agnes Huckmore had married for a second time after his father Thomas's death and became wife of Edward Harrys, who may also have been merchants, they were certainly rich enough.
Others names occur as signatories to various documents, names such as Thomas Werthe, esq., William Floyer, esq., John Butayde, Henry Drake, George Faryngdon, Vincent Maynerd, John Werthe, Richard Sachefyld, John Trewman and John Bagtorr. John Carswell John Wolston of Staverton, Nicholas Holeway and Humphrey Walrond John Crewes Phillip Horswill, John Doartes. These all may have been Totnes merchants in their time.
The Merchant’s middleman, who travelled his area collecting the great bundles of wools, would usually have been prompt in collecting from the growers. If the purchase was very large he might buy in three instalments. These were at set times. The Feast of St Bartholomew, (August 24th), the Feast of All Saints (1st November) and the Feast of Purification (2nd February). Occasionally the clothier would leave the wool with the growers for a whole year, waiting for prices to rise. This caused sheep farmers to complain bitterly since it inhibited their money flow. Most of the time collection was immediate and the wool was carried to the clothiers warehouse.
By the middle of the 16th century middlemen, dealers in wool emerged as a separate class. The broggers or fellmongers bought wool and wool fells or sheepskin, from small growers, selling all they bought. They might have become moderately wealthy, acting as a clothier as well. Many later abandoned this for the profitable activity of simply dealing in wool.There were the Staple Merchants at the top, next came the commodity dealers such as leather workers and glove makers and lastly the Broggers who sold all the wool they bought. The Merchant Staplers generally would have owned at least two properties. A large country house in an area where wool was produced and a town house where they carried on their business.
The Glovers and the worker in leather traded in wool as a by-product of their craft. They purchased wool fells or sheepskins and before they could process the pelts, the fleece had to be removed. This done, they sold the wool to dealers and other manufacturers and since everyone wore gloves, glove makers were great dealers in wool.
Many wealthy dynasties were founded at that time, Devon men like Raleigh, Drake and Hawkins who explored the globe helping trade improve . There was the rising John Gyles with his newly enlarged property at Bowden.
The price of wool and the trade fluctuated through this period and various means were used to elevate the prices.
In 1571 Parliament decreed that everyone over the age of six had to wear a hat on Sundays and on Holy days. The hats had to be made of English woollen cloth. A hat was to become part of everyone’s ordinary costume as were gloves. It was only in the latter part of twentieth century that the wearing of a hat and gloves to go out ceased to be commonplace.
In Totnes by the late 17th century, for reasons that are unclear, possibly lack of investment in the New Draperies , lack of imagination or possibly a complaisance about the continuation of their fortune, it not known but by 1665 the wool trade in Totnes was no longer flourishing and the busy little town became a quieter place.
From hence we went still south about seven miles (all in view of this river) to Dartmouth, a town of note, seated at the mouth of the River Dart, and where it enters into the sea at a very narrow but safe entrance. The opening into Dartmouth Harbour is not broad, but the channel deep enough for the biggest ship in the Royal Navy. The sides of the entrance are high-mounded with rocks, without which, just at the first narrowing of the passage, stands a good strong fort without a platform of guns, which commands the port. The narrow entrance is not much above half a mile, when it opens and makes a basin or harbour able to receive 500 sail of ships of any size, and where they may ride with the greatest safety.
Author of Robinson Carusoe & A Journal in the Time of Plague DANIEL DEFOE wrote of Totnes in his Tour Thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain in 1724
About twenty-two miles from Exeter we go to Totnes, on the River Dart. This is a very good town, of some trade; but has more gentlemen in it than tradesmen of note.
They have a very fine stone bridge here over the river, which, being within seven or eight miles of the sea, is very large; and the tide flows ten or twelve feet at the bridge. Here we had the diversion of seeing them catch fish with the assistance of a dog. The case is this:- On the south side of the river, and on a slip, or narrow cut or channel made on purpose for a mill, there stands a corn-mill; the mill-tail, or floor for the water below the wheels, is wharfed up on either side with stone above high-water mark, and for above twenty or thirty feet in length below it on that part of the river towards the sea; at the end of this wharfing is a grating of wood, the cross-bars of which stand bearing inward, sharp at the end, and pointing inward towards one another, as the wires of a mouse-trap.
When the tide flows up, the fish can with ease go in between the points of these cross-bars, but the mill being shut down they can go no farther upwards; and when the water ebbs again, they are left behind, not being able to pass the points of the grating, as above, outwards; which, like a mouse-trap, keeps them in, so that they are left at the bottom with about a foot or a foot and a half of water. We were carried hither at low water, where we saw about fifty or sixty small salmon, about seventeen to twenty inches long, which the country people call salmon-peal; and to catch these the person who went with us, who was our landlord at a great inn next the bridge, put in a net on a hoop at the end of a pole, the pole going cross the hoop (which we call in this country a shove-net). The net being fixed at one end of the place, they put in a dog (who was taught his trade beforehand) at the other end of the place, and he drives all the fish into the net; so that, only holding the net still in its place, the man took up two or three and thirty salmon- peal at the first time.
Of these we took six for our dinner, for which they asked a shilling (viz., twopence a-piece); and for such fish, not at all bigger, and not so fresh, I have seen six-and-sixpence each given at a London fish-market, whither they are sometimes brought from Chichester by land carriage.
This excessive plenty of so good fish (and other provisions being likewise very cheap in proportion) makes the town of Totnes a very good place to live in; especially for such as have large families and but small estates. And many such are said to come into those parts on purpose for saving money, and to live in proportion to their income.
BRIDGETOWN POMEROY
Heritage Gateway report
Bridgetown Pomeroy Hob Uid: 904542
Location : Devon. South Hams Totnes
Summary : A Medieval town granted a fair in 1267 and founded by a charter of 1268. Burgesses are recorded in 1293 and the borough was worth over seven pounds in 1305.
More information : SX809604 Bridgetown Pomeroy c1250
Bridgetown was one of two boroughs which were engineered by territorial lords just outside the walls of the old town of Totnes, no doubt to profit from any overspill. Bridgetown was founded by the lord of Berry Pomeroy, a village a mile and a half to the east. He took a site along the main Exeter road at the east end of Totnes bridge. The foundation is attested by a charter of 1268 from the founder's son, Henry de la Pomeroy, which permitted an extension of his father's borough and defined the privileges of those who came to live in it. In 1267 the king had granted a fair to the town.
(the 6th successive Henry wife Isolda Bardolf was Baron from 1237- 1272)
The charter gives the new settlers the same rights as the burgesses in the core of the town, with liberty to buy and sell. The new borough and extension cannot now be distinguished but both were probably set along the main road.
In 1293 fifty-five tenants were named as burgesses in Bridgetown. In 1305 the borough was worth #7 11s 8.5d to its lord. The small borough of North Ford (SX86SW 89) was also an extra-mural appendage to Totnes (1)
Bridgetown Pomeroy
1267 Grant to Henry de Pomerai of a three day fair;
A Charter of the same (1268) providing for an extension of the borough, which had been founded by his father.
1293 fifty-five burgesses (2)
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