Ashburton - Merchants
ASHBURTON A Stannary or Tin town and a significant wool town
ASHBURTON in the third year of the reign of Edward II ,
in 1310 was granted to Walter Stapleton, Bishop of Exeter, a market on Saturdays
and a three day Faire at the festival of St. Lawrence.
The wool trade began with exporting raw wool, fleeces and wool fells, sheepskins and over time, between the end of the 1400's
and the end of the 1500's that export switched over to cloth.
Devon knights traded and profited highly from the monopolies that existed. By the middle of the 16th century middlemen, dealers in wool emerged as three separate classes.
There were the Staple Merchants at the top, next came the commodity dealers such as leather workers, glove makers and fellmongers and lastly the Broggers who sold all the wool they bought.
The Merchant Staplers were the wealthy merchants who generally owned at least two properties, a large house in the country and town house where they carried on their business'
The trade in raw wool was declining by 15th century but remained at the foremost of the English commerce.
Wool brought foreign merchants into the realm .
By 1273 English merchants were exporting 11,415 sack of raw wool out of all the 32,743 sacks .
Shipments of raw wool and wool fells, or sheep skins, went mainly to Calais the English Staple on the channel coast of France . They came from the capital ,London, from the east coast towns of Boston, Ipswich and further north from Hull in Yorkshire. Wool was also shipped to Calais through Southampton on the south coast and Sandwich in Kent.
Merchants divided their shipments amongst several ships, to spread the risk of loss, and between five and eleven merchants would have consignments on each ship.
Sacks , cloves of wool - a unit of 7 lb, and wool fells were exported......fish, wine, oil,
By the middle of the C15th century trade had changed from raw wool exports with imports of cloth to the export of English made wool cloth & Bristol was fourth largest importer after London, Southampton and Sandwich in Kent.
In Exeter which, by the C16th, was 2nd port & 4th greatest town in England, around 65 % of the population were employed in the wool trade, mainly producing Broadcloth and Serges. In 1536, the weekly market in Exeter sold over £10,000 of yarn and wool however by the end of 1540's only £5000 per annum in raw wool was exported. At the height of its prosperity the trade had produced close to £100,000 worth of cloth as the annual export of just one small town, Ashburton.
The trade in cloth however far exceeded that, with £100,000 worth of serge each week, leaving the Staple of Exeter. Much of the profit went into the pockets of the Staple Merchants. Much of the profit went into the pockets of the Staple Merchants. The Merchant Staplers generally would have owned at least two properties first a large country house in an area where wool was produced as well as a town house where they carried on their business.
In 1571 Parliament decreed that everyone over the age of six had to wear a 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 by law. It was only in the latter part of the twentieth century that wearing a hat out of doors, as did the wearing of gloves, ceased to be commonplace. At the height of its prosperity the trade Ashburton produced close to £100,000 worth of cloth as the annual export. The switch from exporting raw wool & wool fells to exporting cloth happened between 1450 & 1550 - & they mirrored each other, as one declined the other increased.
Eileen Power.
The typical and average craft gild of the middle ages is egalitarian in its policy and democratic in its government, just because it is working for a local urban market, in which demand and supply are alike known and inelastic. In such a town there is no room or need for individual businesses to expand, and it must never be forgotten that the majority of the towns of the middle ages were of this type.
Powerful as it was, it was at no time either so large or so powerful as the class of great landowners, which was its equivalent in another sphere of production.
Very seldom in the middle ages did the bourgeoisie hold the master key to the social situation. Even assuming that the main sources of power did not in fact reside in personal position in the countryside, or in social links with the government and control of armed forces, it is still true to say that, over the greater part of Europe, the landowning classes had a far greater command over the merchants’ own particular instrument, wealth, and even over liquid wealth.
And, secondly, it must be remembered that the wealth and prosperity of the burgess class as a whole, and the appearance within it of great and outstanding capitalists were not necessarily concomitant.
Late Middle Ages
Subsistence-level production of wool continued,[6] but is overshadowed in our sources by the rise of wool as a commodity, which in turn encouraged demand for other raw materials such as dyestuffs; the rise of manufacturing; the financial sector; urbanisation; and (since wool and related raw materials had a high value-to-weight ratio and were easily transported) regional, international, and even intercontinental trade.[7]
Because of some as yet poorly understood combination of environmental factors and flock management, English wools, particularly from the Welsh Marches, the South West and Lincolnshire, were the most prized in high medieval Europe,[8] and were exported particularly to the emergent urban centres of cloth production of the Low Countries, France, and Italy, where production was promoted by the adoption of the pedal-driven horizontal loom and spinning wheel, along with mechanised fulling and napping.[9]
In 1280 about 25,000 sacks of wool were exported from England; trade in raw wool peaked around 40,000-45,000 sacks per year, falling to 33,000 in 1355 and a mere 9,706 in 1476. As exports of raw wool fell, exports of cloths rose, from 10,000 cloths per year in 1349-50 to 60,000 in 1446-47, and c. 140,000 in 1539-40.[10]
The trade was volatile, not least because of the interventions of England's kings. The interplay of warfare, governmental interference in the form of taxes, export duties and export bans, epidemics of disease and famine, better marketing practices, and serious competition among some of the most important elements of the European mercantile elite for the superior product of the English wool-grower, created an unparalleled cycle of boom and bust in wool exports and prices By the end of the thirteenth century, the heavily industrialised areas of Europe could not have existed without the export of English wool. A halt in the export trade could bring whole areas to the brink of starvation and economic ruin. The trade in raw wool, and the taxes charged on its export, financed the wars of Edward I and allowed the English to compete with the larger resources of France during the Hundred Years' War.
In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the English wool trade was primarily with Flanders (where wool was made into cloth, primarily for sale via the Champagne fairs into the Mediterranean basin), and was dominated by Flemish merchants. But in 1264, the strife in England of the Second Barons' War brought Anglo-Flemish trade almost to a halt and by 1275, when Edward I of England negotiated an agreement with the domestic merchant community (and secured a permanent duty on wool), Italian merchants had begun to gain dominance in the trade. Extending their activities to finance, the Riccardi, a group of bankers from Lucca in Italy, became particularly prominent in English taxation and finance.
Amonst the most famous merchants participating in the English wool trade were Jean Boinebroke of Douai (d. 1286) on the Continental side and William de la Pole (d. 1366) on the English.
Guild organisations seem to have emerged in the textile industry earlier in England than elsewhere in Europe, being attested already in the 1130s in London, Winchester, Lincoln, Oxford, Nottingham, and Huntingdon.
Ashburton Wills
Ashburton PCC wills 1579 - 1699
Robert Prydiaux or Prydyaux, gentleman, February 1579 John Dolbeare, tanner, February 1611
Richard Hexte, widow, November 1611
Robert Pryme, February 1614
Thomas Tonye, July 1616
John Blundell, yeoman, October 1616
Richard Yolland, gentleman, November 1620 Elizabeth Gould, widow, May 1633
John Noseworthy, May 1636
Thomas Ford or Foord, June 1636
Alfred Denband, yeoman, November 1636
William Tolchard or Tolcheard, yeoman, June 1637 Laurence Blundell, gentleman, April 1638 Laurenty Blundell, June 1640
Arthur Woodley, gentleman, June 1640
Thomas Ford, December 1640
Thomas Cruse, gentleman, May 1642
Thomas Ford, May 1642
Thomas Harris, mercer, November 1648
William Fabian, clothier, May 1654
Stephen Sunter, May 1654
Henry Furse, yeoman, August 1654
Thomas Reeve, cordwainer, May 1655
Peter Elford, husbandman, July 1655
William Pinsent, baker, December 1655
John Ogier, yeoman, April 1658
Elizabeth Tidball, widow, April 1658
Julyan or Julian Derry, widow, August 1658 Johan Johns, widow, May 1659
John Lany, June 1659
Mary Addiscott or Adiscott, widow, May 1660 Sampson Bound, yeoman, November 1689
The switch from exporting raw wool to exporting cloth
Years Michaelmas Woolsack exports (5-yr means) Broadcloth exports Total as equivalent broadcloth
1356-60 £ 32,666.40 £ 9,061 £ 150,615.29
1501-5 £ 7,806.80 £ 77,271 £ 111,100.24
1506-10 £ 7,326.20 £ 84,803 £ 116,549.44
1511-15 £ 7,087.20 £ 86,592 £ 117,303.18
1516-20 £ 8,194.40 £ 90,099 £ 125,607.84
1521-25 £ 5,131.60 £ 82,269 £ 104,505.72
1526-30 £ 4,834.80 £ 93,534 £ 114,485.18
1531-35 £ 3,005.20 £ 94,087 £ 107,109.32
1536-40 £ 3,951.40 £ 109,278 £ 126,400.72
1541-45 £ 4,576.00 £ 118,056 £ 137,884.92
It was the raw wool from English sheep that was required to feed foreign looms. At that time the best weavers lived in Flanders and in the rich cloth-making towns of Bruges, Ghent and Ypres, they were ready to pay top prices for English wool.
Wool became the backbone and driving force of the medieval English economy between the late thirteenth century and late fifteenth century and at the time the trade was described as “the jewel in the realm”! To this day the seat of the Lord High Chancellor in the House of Lords is a large square bag of wool called the ‘woolsack’, a reminder of the principal source of English wealth in the Middle Ages.
As the wool trade increased the great landowners including lords, abbots and bishops began to count their wealth in terms of sheep. The monasteries, in particular the Cistercian houses played a very active part in the trade, which pleased the king who was able to levy a tax on every sack of wool that was exported.
John Ford of Ashburton 1672 ,(after the Restoration of the monarchy) , established a Tuesday yarn market in Ashburton without benefit of a charter which gave rise to an important trial. Mr Ford was thought to be a Parliamentarian (TDA 1896 page 329)
BHOL
Thomas Ford, of Devon, pleb. Exeter Coll., matric. 11 Oct., 1588, aged 17; bar.-at-law, Middle Temple, 1600, treasurer 1627 (as son and heir of John, late of Ashburton, Devon, gen., deceased [& his wife Mary Pomeroy married 1566 ),
baptised at Ilsington 21 April, 1567; buried at Ashburton 31 Dec., 1635.
See Foster's Judges and Barristers.
brother
John Ford, gent. Exeter Coll., matric. 20 July, 1652, B.A. 30 Jan., 1655-6, fellow 1656-64, M.A. 29 June, 1658, perhaps rector of Whitstone, Devon, 1658, and vicar of Totnes 1664, until his death 22 March, 1670-1.
Lysons (1822) gives the following description of the Ford family: "Ford, of Chagford, &c. —
Eight generations of this family are described in the Visitation of 1620. Prince supposes them to have been descended from the Fords, of Fordmore, in Moretonhampsted, settled there as early as the 12th century; the heiress of that family married a Charles, of Tavistock.
The Fords, of Chagford, settled there in consequence of a marriage with the heiress of Hill.
The next John Ford , the fourth in descent, who was of Ashburton, married 4 times, all his wives were named Joan.
1st wife was Joan Halwell of Ashburton gave him Joan who married John St Clere son of Gilbert
2nd marriage was to Joan Walrond ,widow of Gregory Huckmore of Bovey, who gave him 2 children
George Ford of Ilsington who married Joan St Clere dau of Gilbert St Clere of Budleigh
Margaret Ford born to his 2nd wife married John Rolle of Stephenstone was mother of Honor who married Thomas Pomeroy of Sandridge.
3rd marriage was to Joan Strowbridge widow of Gregory St Clere father of 3 spouses of John Fords children.
She gave him John Ford who married Mary Pomeroy in 1566
His4th wife, Joan Somerton, died without living issue
John Ford, of Bagtor, married the heiress of Drake, of Spratshays, in Littleham, and was father of Sir Henry Ford, of Nutwell,
who was chief secretary for Ireland, under Arthur Capel, Earl of Essex, and was buried at Woodbury, in 1684:
Son Charles, is supposed to have died in his minority, and three daughters, married to Drake, (ancestor of George Drake, Esq., of Ipplepen,) Holwill, and Egerton.
John, second son of John Ford above mentioned, continued the line at Ashburton;
Mr. John Ford, who died in 1677, is supposed to have been the last of the branch: there was another younger branch at Totnes.
HOWEVER the pedigree and other sources say that it was Henry Ford who married the daughter of Drake ; he was son of another Thomas Ford (1556-1610) of Bagtor in Ilsington, who married Elizabeth Popham & cousin of John who married Pomeroy .
http://www.forgottenbooks.com/readbook_text/Devon_Notes_and_Queries_v3_1000740496/305
" John Ford, of Bagtor,( the elder who married 4 times) who died in 1539, left two sons, George and John, who were half-brothers.
The younger son, John Ford, married in 1566 to Mary, daughter of Hugh Pomeroy, and was the father of
Thomas Ford, of Ashburton ;
John Ford, of Totnes ;
Francis Ford, of Ashburton ;
William Ford, Vicar of East Coker;
Richard Ford, some of whom certainly had children.
George Ford, the elder son of John Ford, (the elder's ) of Bagtor, was bom in 1521 and died in 1569.
His oldest son was Thomas Ford, of Bagtor (died 1610), who married Elizabeth, niece of Chief Justice Popham and who had four sons "
Henry, of Ilsington (died 161 7), John the dramatist, Thomas (died 1664) and Edmund.
John Ford, the dramatist, had cousins, George Raleigh, son of his aunt Susan, and John Ford, of Gray's Inn, son of his uncle Richard.
What became of their descendants and also of the descendants of his brothers?
Did the dramatist ever marry? In Trans. Devon Association^ vol. viii., p. 420, John Ford, of Devon, who married Mary Claverton, is suggested as being John Ford, dramatist. Has this been proved? Where and when did he die? Kate St. Clair Ford. "
also mentioned is
187. Yarde Family (III., p. 175, par. 127). " In reply to the query of your correspondent F.W., I have been unable to refer to Tucket fs PedigreeSj but from extracts I have obtained of the pages he refers to, both branches of the family are only brought down to the year 1620, f.^., nearly 100 years before Gilbert Yarde, who married Elizabeth Champemowne, was bom. This Gilbert was the son of Gilbert Yarde, of Stoke Ga,briel, and matriculated at Hart Hall, Oxford, 2nd July, Digiti zed by Google"
sources APA: Amery, Peter Fabyan Sparke. (2013). pp. 238-9. Devon Notes and Queries (Vol. 3). London: Forgotten Books. (Original work published 1905)
MLA: Amery, Peter Fabyan Sparke. Devon Notes and Queries. Vol. 3. 1905. Reprint. London: Forgotten Books, 2013. 238-9. Print.
There are connections to many of the local land owners all of whom would more than likely traded in wool locally
Harris , Huckmore, Fabian, Southcott, Cruyws and Ford in Ashburton & Totnes and we know John Giles was connected to each other by business.
Giles in Totnes , John Gylles the richest man in Devon
Irysh family in Buckfastleigh . Agnes Pomeroy married to Thomas Irysh on 25 Oct 1736 at Buckfastleigh
A long association in a tin mine at Widecombe & Baron Pomeroy with his cousin Robert Pomeroy of Ingsdon which is close to Ashburton & Widecombe- Sir Edward son of Sir Richard & cousin Robert who died 1517. Edward died age 50 in 1538
3 entries in records for 1509. Contents: Bond for 20 marks
1 Roger Richards, William Smyth, John Coche and John Lamyshede
2 Sir Edward Pomeroy, William Fortescue of Wode, Robert Pomeroy, John Hext, John Holbeme, knight, Thomas Foster, John Yryssh, senior, John Smyth, Thomas Mathwe and Richard Hamlyn
Drewe.
Elinor Cary was born circa 1399, at birth place, to Robert Cary born in 1375 and Margaret Courteney born in 1383,
one brother Philip Cary.
Elinor married Henry Drew born in 1391, in Devon.
They had one son:
William Drew.
Elinor Pomeroy daughter born in 1744, to John Pomeroy and his wife Mary Narracott born in 1697, in Stoke Gabriel Devonshire
John Pomeroy was born in 1697, in Stoke Gabriel
9 children
Elinor married Jeffrey Drew. born in 1740, in Stoke Gabriel, Devonshire, England.
They had one son: Jeffery/Jeffrey Drew.
Source
England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
Elenor Pomeroy was born to John Pomeroy and Mary( Narrocott). baptized 1744
England Marriages, 1538–1973
Ellenor Pomeroy married 1769 to Jeffery Drew born in 1740, in Stoke Gabriel,
Elinor Hockmore born circa 1532,
daughter of William Hockmore born circa 1501, in Buckyate, Devon, by his spouse Bea born Insh born in 1490, in Devon
Elinor had sisters:
Mary Colliford
Elizabeth Langworth
Catherine Harris (born Lawtie),
Agnes Leigh
Elinor Huckmore Married Thomas Drew circa 1550, when she was 18 & died 1606
Thomas Drew was born in 1519, in Sharpham, near Harberton Devon
They had one son: Edward Drew.
Then we have Thomas Pomeroy (son of Richard Pomeroy & Anne Coplestone ) Admitted to Middle temple 1629 died 1663
his 1st wife Mary Drew was daughter of Sir Thomas Drewe of Grange in Broadhembury
Sharpham wiki page give us ( Now a flourishing vineyard)
Thomas Drewe, son, of Sharpham and Killerton, Devon, who married Elinor Hockmore, daughter and co-heiress of William Hockmore.
Drewe
William Drewe (d.1548), 3rd son, of Kenn in Devon, who married a certain Elinor
John Drewe, son, a lawyer of Grays Inn, who married Joane Cruwys a daughter of a member of the Cruwys family of Cruwys Morchard, Devon.
John Drewe (d.1574), of St Leonard's, Devon, son and heir and heir to his grandfather. He married twice, firstly to Anne Yorke, daughter of Watkyn Yorke of Devon, secondly to a lady of the Bridges family.
Thomas Drewe, son, of Sharpham and Killerton, Devon, who married Elinor Hockmore, daughter and co-heiress of William Hockmore.
Edward Drewe (c.1542–1598), son, of Sharpham, a Serjeant-at-Law to Queen Elizabeth I, MP for Lyme Regis 1584, twice for Exeter in 1586 and 1589 and for the prestigious seat of the City of London in 1593.
He purchased the estate of The Grange in the parish of Broadhembury, the former grange of Dunkeswell Abbey, where he built himself a new mansion house and where he entertained Queen Elizabeth I, who subsequently sent him her portrait, attributed to George Gower (c.1540–1596), long kept at The Grange, since 2005 owned by Chris Nightingale of Appleby Castle, Cumbria Historical Portraits Ltd.
He moved his residence to The Grange and sold Sharpham to John Giles of Bowden, an adjacent estate.
Edward Drewe married Bridget FitzWilliam of Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire, by whom he had a son and heir Sir Thomas Drewe (d.1651) of The Grange, Sheriff of Devon in 1612, who sold Killerton to Sir Arthur Acland (d.1610) of Acland, Landkey.
whose daughter was 1st wife of Thomas Pomeroy
Giles/ Gyles - not to be confused with Gylle of Hacche Arundell near Loddiswell Dartmouth Merchant
John Giles (d.1606) of Bowden, an adjacent estate in Ashprington, who purchased Sharpham from Edward Drewe. He was the eldest son of William Giles of Bowden by his wife Joane Blackall (alias Blackaller) of Totnes.
He married Agnes Stucley, a daughter of Sir Hugh Stucley (1496–1559) of Affeton, Devon, Sheriff of Devon in 1545.
Sir Edward Giles (1566–1637), Knight, eldest son and heir, of Bowden, who at the time of the writing of the Survey of Devon by Tristram Risdon (d.1640), was the owner of Sharpham. He married Mary Drew (d.1642/3), daughter and heiress of Edmond Drew of Hayne, Newton St Cyres, Devon (who bore the same arms as Drew of Sharpham but whose kinship to that family is not clear), widow of Walter Northcote. He died without progeny.
Yarde
The Giles family sold Sharpham to the Yarde family of Bradley in the parish of Kingsteignton.
Gilbert Yard (1672/3-1707), of Sharpham, was MP for Ashburton 1705-7. He was buried at Ashprington. He was the eldest son of Gilbert Yarde (d.1692) of Bradley by his wife Elizabeth Northleigh, daughter of Henry Northleigh of Peamore, Exminster and sister of Henry Northleigh (1643–1694) of Peamore, thrice MP for Okehampton
In 1694/5 he married Joane Blackaller (d.1725), daughter of Henry Blackaller "of Sharpham".
Gilbert Yarde (born 1698), son and heir, of Sharpham, living in 1725.
One of the Yarde family owned the market at Newton Abbott
Other Family CONNECTIONS
Agnes Budockshide dau of Robert Budockshide by his 2nd wife Anne Pomeroy her 1st marriage Birth: Abt 1536 in Budockshide Manor, St. Budeaux, near to Plymouth Devon,
Married Oliver HILL b: Abt 1518 in Shilston, Devon, had 6 children ( Shilston is near Modbury in South Hams )
She afterwards married Nicholas Stukely 2nd marriage was to Ann, daughter of Sir Henry Pomeroy of Berry Pomeroy, and widow of Robert Budockshyde.
they had
Anne Stukely Married William Dennis.;
William Stucley Married Joan Stowell;
Mary Stukely Married Henry English.;
Elizabeth Stukely Married Thomas Oore of Taunton.; ????
Christopher Stukely married Mary Forde da of Edward Forde of Pymtree:
John Ford at the top of the tree married an Elizabeth Hill of South Tawton
South TAWTON 4miles E. by S. of Okehampton, and 18½ miles W. of Exeter and has an exceptional old, 15th century and beautiful Church House
J S Amery quotes from a legal action in 1630 between, amongst others, Thos. Prideaux and Thos. Ford.
These two were related by marriage.
Thomas Ford great grandfather was John Ford who had four wives, all called Joan all but the 2nd had living children.
1st Joan Halwell of Ashburton who gave him Joan who married John St Clere son of Gilbert
2nd Joan Walrond widow of Gregory Huckmore of Bovey who gave him
George Ford of Ilsington Married Joan St Clere dau of Gilbert St Clere of Budleigh
Margaret Ford Married John Rolle of Stephenstone Their daughter Honor married Thomas Pomeroy of Sandridge
3rd Joan Strowbridge widow of Gilbert St Clere who gave him John Ford of Ashburton who married Mary Pomeroy of Ingsdon 1566
4th Joan Somerton of Painsford who died without living issue
John Ford of Ashburton w& his wife Mary Pomeroy in 1566 had sons -
Thomas Ford of Ashburton spouse Elizabeth Coryton of West Newton near St Mellion & Landrake in Cornewall
John Ford of Totnes spouse Anne Upton dau of William Upton
Her brother was Thomas Pomeroy who married Elizabeth Henscott whose sister of Thomasine Henscott married Nicholas Prideaux and whose son was Sir John Prideaux of Brooke, Sheriff of Cornwall.
Mary Pomeroys 's other siblings were Margaret Woodbury, Barbara Chichester, Elizabeth Pomeroy, Grace Gilbert , George, Bartholomew, John and Richard Pomeroy.
John Rolle eldest son and heir of George Rolle, married Margaret Ford, daughter of John Ford (d.1538) of Ashburton by the 3rd of 4 wives,
Joan Walrond, widow of Gregory Huckmore. Their daughter Honor Rolle married Thomas Pomeroy 1569 (1543-1615)
* Nicholas Ffabyan of Ashburton, tanner, 'confirmed that the Pillory, Cage or Prison house of the ( Ashburton) Borough did stand within the said Market House and that the Stocks for the said Borogh sometimes stood within the said market house and sometimes in the said market-place.'
The Market House was demolished in about 1850 during 'town improvements'.
Mr Amery gives a reference of 6th Charles I (1630), and says the action was in the Exchequer.
It seems likely to be linked to the document from the following year in the National Archives, 'Accounts of the profits of the market, Prideaux and Harris v. Ford and Others.'
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk, 7 Charles I ref E 178/5236
Report and Transactions of the Devonshire Assocation, vol 56, Plymouth 1925, p72
By the middle of the 16th century middlemen, dealers in wool emerged as three separate classes.
There were the Staple Merchants at the top, next came the commodity dealers such as leather workers, glove makers and fellmongers and lastly the Broggers who sold all the wool they bought. The Merchant Staplers generally owned at least two properties, a large house in the country and town house where they carried on their business'
(Staple Merchant: Nicholas Semer, out of Dartmouth: John Giles of Totnes, and probably Richard Pomeroy, Merchant at Totnes 1523. )
Occupations in the 1600s and 1700s
Occupations in Ashburton PCC wills (extracted from fuller list in the People and Properties section)
John Ford
John Saint Clere both landowners and gentlemen but did they also deal in wool.
They were more than likely to have been wool producers & farmed sheep.
They were more than likely to have been wool producers & farmed sheep.
John Blundell, yeoman, October 1616 ( Of the family of Peter Blundell, one of the wealthiest merchants of Elizabethan England, died in 1601 having made his fortune principally in the cloth industry and endowed the private Blundells School Tiverton 1604)
William Tolchard or Tolcheard, yeoman, June 1637
Thomas HARRIS, mercer, November 1648
William FABIAN, clothier, May 1654
Sampson Bound, yeoman, November 1689 ( ?? his son Sampson BOUND called gentleman, indicating that his father was wealthy enough to send his to university to became a gentleman - on board her Majesty's ship The Dunkirk, June 1707)
John WINSOR clothier, June 1772
NOTES.
Tuckers Hall Exeter
http://www.exetermemories.co.uk/em/exeter_wool.php
At the end of the 16th century the war with Spain was having an effect on trade in Exeter .
The policies of the Tudor monarchs brought opportunities but also they brought problems.
There was considerable disruption both locally and nationally caused by religious conservatism brought the Prayerbook Rebellion of 1549.
Henry VIII made increasing demands for taxation on the civic community. The crown also intended to exercise stricter controls over almost every aspect of life through local civic representatives.
Ships moneys and wartime levies as well as the taxes levied by Parliament had to be endured when war had severed the trade routes of Exeter merchants.
Old protagonists were weakened and rivals such as the Courtenays, then earls of Devon, were replaced by the Russell’s, the Earls of Bedford,with whom the city of Exeter had fought a long legal battle over the access to the port at Topsham.
In Exeter there existed a tight oligarchy of locally powerful families, who controlled Exeter through the civil corporation . Generally very successful by the 1630’s their position and control showed signs of cracking. Over the generations these men had increased wealth and raised their prestige, along with their self importance..
Exeter merchants although highly conservative, choose to adhere to the customary economic policies however they were also willing to undertake ambitious speculations.
16th century Exeter was an authoritarian society with control being exercised over the economic activities of the lives of ordinary citizens. There were precautions against violence or crime with magistrates alert for the slightest threat to the rule of law , and this in a society without a formal police force. The destitute and unemployed and outbreaks of violence were common. There a serious problem and serious efforts were made to cope with the problems this caused.
Exeter was a highly autonomous economic unit and was not yet integrated into the economy of England. The city retained a body of economic rights which served to protect the rights of the city's freemen who had a trading monopoly that others did not. This monopoly excluded ‘aliens’, outsiders, as far as possible, from the benefits of trading within the city. However not all freemen of Exeter were equal and the merchant class derived the greatest benefits. As individual traders their greatest competitors were their fellow merchants but the mutual benefits of a monopoly, through which they were all linked, was against the rest of the English and European economic world.
Illustrious Devonshire knights traded and profited highly from the monopolies that existed.
Ashburton consisted of two manors. The west was an ecclesiastical manor belonging to the Bishops of Exeter and the east belonged to the Crown. The Saintclere's held the church lands in the west of the borough and leased it Richard Duke of Otterton thus Duke held lands in both parts of the borough
In 1542 later John Saintclere supported the claim of the townsmen of Ashburton that the exercise of the town’s market belonged to them and not to the guild of St. Lawrence. The issue was a crucial one because John Prideaux, one of the chantry commissioners for Devon, argued that the lease of the market, as a possession of the dissolved guild, was the property of the crown.
John Prideaux referred the issue to the quarter sessions held at Exeter that October, but evidently lost his case. Saintclere and the townsmen were probably helped by his family’s friendship with Sir Thomas Denys, the presiding justice.
John Ford married Joan Strowbridge widow of John Saintclere; their son John Ford married Mary Pomeroy in 1566. She was sister of Thomas Pomeroy who married Elizabeth Henscott whose sister of Thomasine Henscott married Nicholas Prideaux and their son was John Prideaux Sheriff of Cornwall.
Charles II whilst Prince of Wales ( pre 1647) sold the troublesome crown owned borough and manor of Ashburton to Sir Robrt Parkhurst and the Earl of Faversham. Parkhurst conveyed his moiety Sir John Stawell who transferred it to Tuckwells and thence to the Rolles. Faversham sold his share to Richard Duke of Otterton
MP for Ashburton in 1640 Sir Edward Fowel and Sir John Northcott.
There were tin lodes in the valley of the river Ashburn /Yeo
In the Middle Ages, Dartmouth's trade was largely with the Atlantic seaboard of ... The chief commodities exported were wool and grain and the most important import was ... There was also a brisk export traffic in the cloth manufactured inland at towns such as Ashburton.
1785 July 7th, another fire at Ashburton, destroyed upwards of 30 dwellings.
1792 Nov 15th, A meeting held at the Chapel of St Laurence [the Grammar School] at Ashburton, John SEALE Esq, in the chair to promote the construction of a canal from thence to Totnes; a project that was never executed.
Mills all along the River Ashburn/Yeo used water power to cleanse and process the raw wool.
Names
In 1770 John Caunter, clothier, insured premises with the Sun Fire Office. They included more than one house, offices, a drying linney and a linney called the Dock Inn.
The Devon Cloth Industry in the Eighteenth century, Sun Fire Office Inventories of merchants' and manufacturers' property 1726-1770, Edited by Stanley D Chapman, Devon and Cornwall Record Society, 1978, p2
John Caunter, a merchant and sergemaker of Ashburton, died after a short illness 1825
Will of William Fabian, Clothier of Ashburton, Devon Date: 06 May 1654 Held by: The National Archives, Kew Legal status: Public Record
Devon and Exeter Oath Rolls, 1723
QS17/2/1/6
Oaths sworn at The School House, als. The Chapel of St Lawrence, Ashburton 23 August 1723 before Richard Reynell, Rawlin Mallock and William Bogan esqs
William Culling, esq of Woodland [Signed]
Joseph Taylor, esq of Paignton [Signed]
George Fabian of Ashburton [Signed]
Peter Fabian (Fabyan) of Ashburton [Signed]
Elizabeth Fabian of Wolborough [Not signed or marked]
Thomas Southcott of Berry Pomeroy [Signed]
Ford, Elias QS17/1/13A/4c -Oaths sworn at Moreleigh, 22 December 1715
Ford, John QS17/1/13A/2c Oaths sworn at Sheepwash, 31 October 1715 before Samuel Rolle, Christopher Harris & Abraham Denis esqs
Ford, John QS17/1/14/1 Oaths sworn at Stoke Damerel, 1 November 1715 before John Rogers bart, John Elford esq & John Harris esq Includes declaration against transubstantiation, taken by Francis Drake, William Spry & John Ford only.
Ford, John QS17/1/17/8h Oaths sworn at The Castle, Exeter, 12 January 1724/25 before John Ivie esq, Thomas Carew, John Short &Chr Bale esq
Ford, Samuel QS17/1/14/1 Oaths sworn at Chittlehampton, 23 November 1715 before John Hacche, Thomas Bury esqs
Ford, William QS17/1/13A/8b Oaths sworn at Rostock, Pilton, 2 November 1715 before Arthur Chichester bart and Henry Incledon esq
http://www.kaysway.org/ashburton.htm
Fabien, Barbara Bef. 1648 Married Walter Shillabeer Ashburton, Devon, England. 2 February 1662/63
Lear, John Abt. 1756 Ashburton, Devon, England. Richard Lear Jane Butland
Lear, Mary Abt. 1731 Ashburton, Devon, England. Elias Butland St. Lawrence, Ashburton, Devon, England. February 1756 Benjamin Lear Joan Bowden
Lear, Richard Abt. 1750 Ashburton, Devon, England. Richard Lear Jane Butland
Lear, Thomas Abt. 1753 Ashburton, Devon, England. Ann Ley Ashburton, Devon, England. 1776 Richard Lear Jane Butland
Lear is interesting because of Sir Peter Lear (of Lindridge House) High Sheriff of Devon 1673 1st Baronet (died c. 1684), born the son of a yeoman in Ipplepen in Devon. Purchased Lindridge Manor house and estate at Bishopsteignton in 1660. He made his money from sugar on a plantation in Barbados in St Georges parish with 8 white servants and 123 black slaves.
Peter and his wife had 9 children all of whom died as infants . His 11 year old nephew Thomas Lear inherited the estate and at the age of 18 Thomas married Isabella, daughter of Sir William Courtenay of Powderham. Sadly both he and his wife died without children, in the same year both in their early 30s . His uncle, Thomas Lear of Lindridge, was later described as a man of 'very mean’ social status, a mere ‘farmer of Devon’.
Ipplepen in the centre of the triangle made by wool towns of Ashburton Newton Abbot and Totnes
Ford, Thomas of Devon, pleb. Exeter Coll., matric. 11 Oct., 1588, aged 17; bar.-at-law, Middle Temple, 1600, treasurer 1627 (as son and heir of John, late of Ashburton, Devon, gen., deceased), baptised at Ilsington 21 April, 1567; buried at Ashburton 31 Dec., 1635. See Foster's Judges and Barristers.
Trigg
BHOL
Fabian, Nicholas (Fabyan) son of Nicholas, of Ashburton, Devon, pleb. Corpus Christi Coll., matric. 28 Aug., 1634, aged 19; B.A. 1 Feb., 1637-8. [5]
Ford, Edward son of Tho., of Essingdon (i.e. Ilsington), Devon, gent. Exeter Coll., matric. 15 June, 1689, aged 17; baptised at Ilsington 12 Dec., 1671.
Forde, (Sir) Henry son of Henry, of Bagtor, Devon, arm. Exeter Coll., matric. 21 Nov., 1634, aged 17; of Nutwell Court, Exeter, M.P. Lostwithiel 1660 (till void 5 May), Tiverton (April) 1664-81, knighted 20 July, 1672, Irish secretary; buried at Woodbury 12 Sept., 1684. See Foster's Parliamentary Dictionary & D.N.B.
Ford, Henry son of Nath., of Exeter (city), paup. Exeter Coll., matric. 3 April, 1707, aged 17; B.A. 19 March, 1710-11.
Ford, John of Devon, gent. Exeter Coll., matric. 26 March, 1601, aged 16; the dramatist, student of Middle Temple 1602 (as 2s. of Thomas, of Ilsington, Devon, esq.); baptised 12 April, 1586. See Foster's Inns of Court Reg. & D.N.B.
Ford, John gent. Exeter Coll., matric. 20 July, 1652, B.A. 30 Jan., 1655-6, fellow 1656-64, M.A. 29 June, 1658, perhaps rector of Whitstone, Devon, 1658, and vicar of Totnes 1664, until his death 22 March, 1670-1. See Boase, 72.
Ford, Simon s. Richard, of East Ogwell, Devon, pleb. Magdalen Hall, matric. 4 Nov., 1636, aged 17; B.A. 11 June, 1640, M.A. 12 Dec., 1648, a student of Christ Church 1648, created B.D. 16 Feb., 1649-50, D.D. 21 June, 1665, lecturer of Newington Green, London, vicar of St. Laurence, Reading, and of All Saints', Northampton, 1659-70, chaplain to the king, minister of Bridewell chapel in 1670, and of St. Mary Aldermanbury, rector of Old Swinford, co. Worcester, 1676, and of Llansannan (1st portion), co. Denbigh, 1685. Licenced as of Bridewell precinct 13 Aug., 1672, to marry Martha Stamp (who died 13 Nov., 1684), he died 7 April, 1699. See Ath. iv. 756; Fasti, ii. 108, 147; Foster's Index Eccl.; London Marriage Licences, ed. Foster; Burrows, 260; Rawl. i. 79; & D.N.B. [30]
FOOTNOTES sources
TDA Transactions of Devon Association
FODA Devon and Exeter Oath Rolls, 1723
BHOL http://www.british-history.ac.uk/alumni-oxon/1500-1714/pp480-509
Ref given as Rot. Cart. 3 Edward 11.21 in Magna Britannia, vol6 part 2, Lysons 1822, p12
Rot. Cart is Rotuli Chartarum, or Charter Rolls. In the National Archives?
historic -uk site http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Wool-Trade/
sources
John H. Munro, 'Medieval Woollens: Textiles, Textile Technology and Industrial Organisation, c. 800-1500', in The Cambridge History of Western Textiles, Volume 1, ed. by D. T. Jenkins (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003),
Adrian R. Bell, Chris Brooks, Paul R. Dryburgh, The English Wool Market, c.1230–1327 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007),1.
Emilia Jamroziak, 'Rievaulx Abbey as a Wool Producer in the Late Thirteenth Century: Cistercians, Sheep, and Debts', Northern History, 40 (2003), 197-218 (pp. 200-1).
Studies in English Trade 15th Century. Wool Trade- Eileen Power & MM Postan. Pub. Routledge & Kegan. London 1933
The trade in raw wool was declining in 15th century but remained at the foremost of the English commerce. However the increase in the trade in cloth mirrored the decline of the wool trade
Wool brought foreign merchants into the realm .They came from the Low Countries, from Lombardy in Northern Italy and also from Florence where the Medici ruled and the dyers of cloth had their own guild. The Arta Del Lana which was wealthy enough to pay for the building of the magnificent cathedral in Florence, the Duomo with its magnificent terra-cotta-tiled dome engineered by Brunelleschi and bell tower designed by Giotto.
Sometime in the reign of Henry VI (1422-1461) an Italian weaver called Antonio Bonvise arrived in Devon. He set about showing its weavers how the make a cloth that was finer than the rough serge they were producing.
This cloth was called Kersey and Devon was to become famous for its production. Before this time, England was an importer of woollen fabric, but now that European wool was more expensive, it now became worthwhile to manufacture cloth at home. The staple monopoly in Calais destroyed itself prior to the fall of the town to the French in 1558, and England became the greatest cloth producing country in the world.
Notes
English Trade- Eileen Power
Wool was exported i three directions. To the Staple of Calais, Holland and Zealand and to Italy. The monopoly was only waved legally in the case of inferior wools shipped from northern counties and shipped via Newcastles, and wool going by sea to the Mediterranean. For the crown sales of licences were a source of considerable income giving theking and easy way nto pay debts that both Henry VI and Edward IV used extensively despite continuously repeated complaints from the Staple at Calais. The3 Staple waged a steady battle against the practice of loans , and only occasionally granted large loans to the Crown always coupling them with a request for the withdrawal of licences to ship from anywhere but Calais. Licences were nearly always to ship wool through the Straights of Marrock where paying customs was erratic.
During the reign of Edward IV there are accounts showing that the Duchess of York , Cecily Neville King Edward's mother (died 1495, Berkhamsted Castle,Hertfordshire. as well as other significant persons were exporting cloth and wool. Henry VI exported on his own account as did Edward IV both trading in cloth, raw wool and tin in large quantities. The records show that hardly a year went passed without the king’s name appearing in the custom accounts.
However the interests of the Staplers were at odds with those of the crown where licenses were concerned , but were identical where evading the taxes was involved. If the Staple lost its rights then the king lost his income from customs.
In the 15th century there was a great deal of smuggling where little creeks and coastal inlets escaped the attention of custom officials. Ships carried raw wool and wool fells/sheepskins hidden in pipes, barrels and sacks or hidden under cargoes of wood, cereals and sea coal. Some ingenious merchants even rolled their wool inside bales of cloth, which carried a lower duty. In 1423 a ship loaded with 200 tons of wool sailed from a small port in Lancashire to Zealand in the Low Countries without paying customs dues.
Straits of Marrock
Not found - but I wonder if it refers to the Straights of Gibraltar with Morocco opposite??The Christian Kingdom of Castile annexed it in 1309, lost it again to the Moors in 1333 and finally regained it in 1462. Gibraltar became part of the unified Kingdom of Spain and remained under Spanish rule until 1704.
E.E. Rich
Although a community of English merchants concerned with the export trade existed before this time, the Company of the Staple can be confidently traced back to 1359, when the first royal grant was issued giving the merchants unequivocal control of the export trade in staple commodities. In 1363 the "Community of the Merchant of the Staples" moved to Calais from Bruges and soon became known as the Mayor and Company of the Merchants of the Staple of England. In order to ship wool to Calais a merchant had to be a member of the Company and to obey its ordinances. Admission could be gained through a three to four year apprenticeship or by purchase and by the end of the fifteenth century, nearly 400 men were members. The Company enjoyed great wealth and controlled the English wool trade here until the loss of Calais in 1558, by which time changes in the English textile industry were also undermining their trade. Attempts to set up again at Bruges with the backing of a new royal charter did not restore their prosperity and this decline led the Company, anxious to emphasise its historical and national importance, to collect its documents, creating the register of royal grants found in this collection. In 1565 they also established an ordinance book to regulate their merchants' trading activities.
Moves between Bruges and Hamburg followed until in 1614 the export of English wool was forbidden and the Company was forced to seek a new role for itself. They established new ordinances and were allowed to trade wool within England. London continued to be their focus however, where they owned the Staple Inn and other property. Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Company managed the supply of wool throughout England. In 1825, the export of English wools was once more allowed and overseas wool began to arrive in England, reducing the Company's importance as a wool-broker. Through the nineteenth century it functioned as a Livery Company of sorts meeting in London twice a year.
In 1928, with few remaining members, the Company was terminated and its records deposited in the British Museum. The records were discovered by Professor Rich in 1932, and his enquiries, with those of Mr Bernard Johnson, revealed that three members of the Company still existed, two of them in Yorkshire. There was support for reviving the Company at York and the Company began to meet twice a year there, and once in London. The Company continues to the present day.
Reference: E.E. Rich, A Short History of the Company of the Merchants of the Staple of England
Company of the Merchants of the Staple of England York University
Borthwick Institute, University of York
Reference Number(s) GB 193 STAPLE Dates of Creation c.1463-1978
Of the 3,080 people in 1850 living in bustling and self sufficient little town of Ashburton there were
15 bakers, 6 blacksmiths, 3 booksellers (including one who sold printed music), 16 boot and shoe makers (including Peter Foot who was also Parish Clerk), 9 butchers, 5 cabinet makers, 9 carpenters, 3 coopers, 5 corn millers, 3 curriers, 4 earthenware dealers, 29 grocers, 4 ironmongers, 6 linen drapers, 3 maltsters, 7 milliners, 6 nursery gardeners and seedsmen, 6 stonemasons, 6 tailors, 1 tanner, 2 tin miners, 3 watch makers, 3 wheelwrights, 3 wine and spirit merchants, 4 woolstaplers.
The importance of the wool industry is apparent in the tombs of wool merchants and subsidiary tradesmen.
Mr. John Winsor, sergemaker died in 1772 and has a finely cut slate memorial in the east wall of the vestry.
Joseph Hurst, the currier died 1814, William Mann the tanner in 1632 and Richard Elliot, tallow chandler,
Peter Fabyen sergemaker who died 1843, these all prospered on products of the sheep.
Ashburton’s famous sons, John Dunning, William Gifford and Dean Ireland.
The Hern vault starts with William Hern, the tanner who died in 1791
The Tucker family was prominent in the town for 6 generations. Starting from professional roots, Moses Tozer, surgeon, died 1791 is the first name on the family vault. Robert Tucker was succeeded by Robert Tucker. founded the solicitors firm of that name and took leading parts in public life in Ashburton. One branch of the family, that of Major General Sir Charles Tucker is commemorated by 2 tall crosses, one north of the church to his first wife who died in Secunderabad, the other in the churchyard extension to himself and other members of his family.
There remains our oldest tombstone at the west door to Harris the Tanner, 1637, with the message “Fear not to die, learn this of me, No ill in death, if good thou be".