POMEROY'S in PARLIAMENT

Pomeroy’s in Parliament

Extracted from the parliamentary history website- with AJP corrections

The Pomeroys were an ancient family compared with which the Courtenays were newcomers ...

POMEROY, Sir John (c. 1347-1416), of Berry Pomeroy, Devon...." It seems unlikely that a knight and landowner of the standing of Sir John Pomeroy would sit in Parliament and represent Totnes at Gloucester in 1407. However no other John Pomeroy has been found to fit ."

POMEROY, Sir Thomas (d.1426 son of Robert of Upottery & Smallridge belonged to a cadet branch of the Pomeroy family;
Outlaw to Baron thought dubious means Thomas emerged as a prominent member of the family

POMEROY, Edward (d.1446), of Sandridge, Devon and Tregony, Cornw. 1386-1421

POMEROY, Roger (1629-1708), of Sandridge, Devon. Head of the family at Brixham .

Sir John POMEROY (c.1347-1416), of Berry Pomeroy, Devon. Knighted bef. Dec. 1374. MP for TOTNES 1407
from Parliamentary site - Corrected

Born about 1347, son of Sir Henry Pomeroy by his wife Emmot ( family name unknown) (d.1367) of Berry PomeroyHe married was by 1377 to Joan de Merton (d.1420), daughter and coheir. of Sir Richard Merton of Merton, Devon, widow of John Bampfield of Poltimore.

Offices Held Commissioner. of array, Devon May 1375, Apr., July, Aug. 1377, Feb. 1379, Mar. 1380, Apr. 1385, Mar. 1392; arrest Aug. 1378, Sept. 1381;
Commissioned to issue proclamations prohibiting unlawful assemblies June 1381;
Commissioner of oyer and terminer Oct. 1412.

JP. Cornwall . 4 Mar. 1377-8, Devon Dec. 1381-3. & Sheriff of Devon 30 Sept.-3 Nov. 1399.

Medieval Soldiers site http://www.medievalsoldier.org/database/maindbsearch.php

Sir John de la Pomeray, ; Knight; Man-at-Arms; Naval Service (Keeping of the Sea) under Brian, Guy de 1370

Sir John de la Pomeray ; Knight;Man-at-Arms; Naval Service (Keeping of the Sea) under Guy de Brian 1371

1372 in France under William Montagu, earl of Salisbury in 1372 led by Edward III (1312 - 1377) Letters of Attorney
Noted as a Man At Arms on board ship. Not a "mariner." with Edward III aboard one of the naval ships in 1372

Sir John de la Pomerai was active in the naval defence of Devonshire against a landing from France in 1375;
Commissions of Array :1377.

The Pomeroy's were one of the few Norman families actually to have come over at the Conquest, & establish itself in the south-west. The centre of its estates were at Beri, later called Berry Pomeroy, at nearby Harberton in Devon and Tregony Castle in Cornwall. These stood at the head of honours which amounted to 58 knights’ fees.

It seems unlikely that a knight and landowner of the standing of Sir John Pomeroy would sit in Parliament for a mere borough as distinct from a shire.
The omission of his designation as knight from the return might be thought to strengthen the doubt that it was in fact he and not some lesser man of the same name who represented Totnes at Gloucester in 1407. However no other John Pomeroy has been found to fit the bill, and the evidence of Sir John’s undisputed influence in the borough as owner of the Totnes suburb of Bridgetown Pomeroy. Coupled with the attendance of his steward, Robert French, at the elections to the Parliament in question, this leads to the conclusion that he was, indeed, elected to the Commons as a burgess.
AJP Notes that Totnes was a thriving wool town & the 2nd wealthiest town in Devon at that time .

Sir John was the son of a knight who fought at Crécy in 1346. His appointments to several royal commissions of array suggest military experience.

The substantial Pomeroy estates in Devon and Cornwall included the manors of Raphael or Raffell near Polperro and Stockleigh Pomeroy, a third of Brixham and a moiety of Harberton, as well as the castles of Berry Pomeroy and Tregony. To these, which he inherited from his father in December 1373. By his marriage John added lands in Nymet St. George and Kilmington, and he also shared the patronage of the church at Merton.

In 1376, he acquired estates in Cornwall from William Huish, brother-in-law of Sir Robert Tresilian KB, which involved him in a legal tangle after Tresilian’s forfeiture for treason and execution in 1388. Huish property in Devon (at Huish, Stowford, Washbourne and Allaleigh) also passed into or through Pomeroy’s hands, but was lost before 1391.

No reliable contemporary valuation of the Pomeroy estates has survived. In 1412 Sir John was said to be holding lands in Devon worth £60 p.a., but this was probably a low estimate, for at the time of his death Berry Pomeroy alone was reported to be worth £40.2

That Sir John’s career in royal service was undistinguished may have had something to do with his political sympathies. As well as his contacts with Tresilian he had also materially assisted the judge’s clerk, John Blake (who was likewise condemned to death by the Merciless Parliament), by giving him the wardship of one of his tenants in Lesnewth.

Pomeroy’s dismissal from the shrievalty of Devon barely a month after his appointment on the first day of Henry IV’s reign was almost certainly for political reasons, but, unfortunately, no information as to the circumstances has been found.
AJP Note- Given subsequent events this suggests to AJP the Thomas Pomeroy Esq, who was in high favour with Henry Bolinbroke, ( Henry IV ) might have had a hand in this .

John's friendship with Sir John Dynham (d.1428), of Hartland, may also have given him cause for regret because in 1398 he had acted as one of four mainpernors who, in a bond for £200, undertook that Dynham would keep the peace. However although Dynham received a pardon in 1401 and his bailsmen were released from their obligations six years later, they were held responsible for two more offences of his. Dynham had eventually to forfeit 700 marks to obtain further pardons for himself and his friends.

In 1387 Pomeroy, considering himself in no way bound by an entail of the family estates in favour of the male line which had been made in 1329, had settled them in the event of his dying childless on his heirs-general.

A change of mind, seen in provisions made in 1404 and 1414 on behalf of his cousin and male heir, Edward Pomeroy, was ignored after his death in 1416, for the Crown preferred the claims of his nephew, John Cole of Nethway, who had married Margaret Pomeroy daughter of Sir Henry Pomeroy and his wife Johanna Mules along with his niece Joan Chudleigh, who had married Sir Thomas Pomeroy Robert of Smallridge & Upottery. Thomas Pomeroy and John Cole pursued what were often quite dubious claims against Edward Pomeroy, who was forcibly ejected by way of the windows from his house at Berry Pomeroy in 1428. Defenestration!

Sir John’s will, for which probate was granted in October 1416, has not survived. His widow was required to take an oath not to remarry without the King’s licence, and presumably never did so. She died four years later

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421. Author: L. S. Woodger

POMEROY, Edward (d.1446), of Sandridge, Devon and Tregony, Cornwall.

Constituency DEVON 1419 son. of Thomas Pomeroy (d. 1378), of Sandridge. Married about 1404 to Margaret Beville (d. 10 Sept. 1461), daughter of John Beville of Killigarth & Woolston, Cornw., 2 sons

Offices Held Sheriff, Devon 26 Nov. 1431-5 Nov. 1432.

Commission of inquiry, Dorset, Devon, Cornw. June 1432 (piracy); to take musters May 1440; of oyer and terminer, Devon Sept. 1442

Pomeray, Edward of Sandrygge, in France with Hugh Courtenay, earl of Devon in 1419 Letters of Protection

Records of the Exchequer, and its related bodies, with those of the Office of First Fruits and Tenths, and the Court of Augmentations Records of the King's Remembrance-King's Remembrancer: Accounts Various (Army and Navy accounts)

Biography

These properties descended in the direct male line from the late 13th to the early 15th centuries, being governed for some of that time by an entail made in 1329, which stipulated that Sir Henry Pomeroy’s lands were to descend to his sons and their male heirs in succession.
Two of these sons had male issue: Sir Henry (d.1373), his eldest, and Thomas (knight of the shire for Devon in 1377), his fifth son his son William being father of Edward.

But in 1387 Sir John Pomeroy , son and heir of the younger Sir Henry, set the entail aside by holding Berry Pomeroy of feoffees jointly with his wife and providing for the descent of the estates to the heirs of their bodies with remainder to his right heirs: in effect, Edward was dispossessed.

This was, however, to some extent remedied before March 1404, when Edward consented that Berry and neighbouring properties should be held by Joan, Sir John’s wife, for term of her life, a transaction which suggests that his reversionary rights had at least been recognised. Certainly, after September 1413 Sir John and his wife held Berry with remainder to Edward and his male heirs.

Meanwhile, in 1404, our MP had acquired from this same kinsman the family lands at Tregony, albeit only by agreeing to pay him £46 a year until he died; and in the same year he took possession of premises at Sandridge and other places in Devon, which, presumably, had once belonged to his father. But the death of Sir John without issue in 1416 and the machinations of Sir Thomas Pomeroy , the husband of Sir John’s niece, disturbed all the lawful succession.

Sir Thomas seized Berry, having persuaded Sir John’s widow to give up her rights to the property and, moreover, in 1417-18, he challenged Edward’s possession of Tregony given to him on his marriage to Margaret Beville . Indeed, with a band of some 200 men he forced an entry into the manor, locked up Edward’s wife without food and drink for two days, and so threatened the couple that they did not dare stay.

Sir Thomas and Edward were subsequently required to undertake, on pain of £100 fines, not to molest one another, and in February 1418, by advice of the King’s Council and ‘to avoid riots and other evils and inconveniences which may easily arise’, Tregony was placed in the custody of (Sir) John Arundell I of Lanherne.

In 1419 Edward served in the retinue of Hugh Courtenay, the heir to the earldom of Devon, which body formed the nucleus of the large naval force under Hugh’s command as ‘captain of the navy’. He attended the shire elections held at Exeter in April 1421 and October 1423, but was never again returned to Parliament himself.

Pomeroy’s election to Parliament in 1419 may perhaps be explained in terms of Courtenay influence. In 1434 he was among the leading Devon landowners required to take the oath not to maintain anybody who broke the peace. Although on one occasion he was described as ‘knight’, he was generally referred to as ‘esquire’; clearly, his public services were not such as to have warranted knighthood.
It was not until the childless death of Sir Thomas in 1426 that the Pomeroy estates were re-united Edward’s hands. The properties were quite extensive, though no complete financial assessment has survived .
He died on 3 May 1446, and was then succeeded by his son, Henry. His widow lived on until 1461.

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Notes

1. E.B. Powley, House of de la Pomerai, p. xxv; Peds. Plea Rolls ed. Wrottesley, 302-3; CIPM, xv. 136.

2. Cornw. Feet of Fines (Devon and Cornw. Rec. Soc. 1914), 687; ibid. (1950), 853; CPR, 1385-9, p. 296; 1413-16, p. 95; 1416-22, pp. 135, 318; Powley, 61-62; CCR, 1413-19, p. 451; C1/6/91; HMC 15th Rep. VII, 140-1; C138/47/53.

3. Powley, 75-76; Feudal Aids, i. 224-5, 453, 480, 486, 491, 493; vi. 418; CPR, 1429-36, p. 399; DKR, xliv. 610; J.H. Wylie, Hen. V, iii. 182; Reg. Lacy ed. Hingeston-Randolph, i. 12; HMC 15th Rep. VII, 142-3; C219/12/5, 13/2.

4. CCR, 1429-35, p. 342; 1441-7, pp. 328-9; CFR, xviii. 2, 21; CPR, 1429-36, p. 322; C139/122/37; C140/1/11.

Thomas POMEROY Esq (d.1426), of Combe Raleigh, Devon. - Troublesome Thomas - Knighted in 1400

Constituency DEVON Jan. 1404/DEVON 1406/ DEVON 1410 / DEVON May 1413

From the cadet line in east Devon , son of Robert Pomeroy of Smallridge & Upottery Devon & brother of William of Membury, Thomas seems to have been very much a soldier of fortune . His 1st marriage in 1388 was a hurried and illicit affair without bans or a licence from the king to Joanna Chudleigh b 1387 daughter of Sir James Chudleigh by his 1st wife Joanna Pomeroy & widow of Sir John St Aubyn & of Sir Phillip de Bryan died 1387 , the heiress was already betrothed to another man, William Amyas, Joanna was the Pomeroy heiress as sister & coheir of Sir John Pomeroy, who died in 1416- and her sister Margaret Cole .

Thomas & Joanna had one child, a daughter Isabella. Joanna died 14 Dec. 1422, her daughter is mentioned her IPM but died before Thomas , her father. At her death Joanna possessed Combe Ralegh, Avishayes in Sidmouth, and Wolston, in east Alvington; a half share in Beri, half share in Stoklegh, a half share in Tregony. and half shares in the moieties of Hurberton and Brixham After the death of his first wife on 14 Dec 1422 & before the year was out in March, Thomas married again. This wife was also Joanna. She was the daughter of Sir John Raleigh of Nettlecombe, Som., widow of John Whalesborough of Whalesborough, Cornwall. She survived Thomas & died 1436 to be buried at Whitefriars , Newgate in London with her daughters & a granddaughter, Alice Fitz Rafe ,wife of a Sir William Pomeroy.

Offices Held Sheriff, Devon 24 Nov. 1400-8 Nov. 1401, 29 Nov. 1410-10 Dec. 1411, 6 Nov. 1413-19 May 1414, Som. and Dorset 22 Nov. 1404-5.

Commr. of inquiry, Devon Aug. 1404 (prisoners taken at Black Pool), Devon, Cornw. June 1406 (concealments); array, Devon July 1405, Apr. 1418; to raise royal loans, Devon, Cornw. June 1406; of oyer and terminer, Devon Mar. 1417.

JP. Devon 1 Oct. 1415-Nov. 1418.NOTES His father Robert Pomeroy of Upottery & Bockerel in 1330 held Membury manor . Early in 1406 ,with Thomas & William and a chaplain of Membury, he surrendered Membury to the prior of Goldclyve in Newport in Monmouth ( Patent Rolls 1405 & Close Rolls )

Parliamentary Biography

Although he belonged to a cadet branch of the Pomeroy family, Thomas emerged as a prominent member of the family , a prominence due more to a convenient marriage and dubious financial dealings, coupled with strong Lancastrian sympathies, than to any high standing as a landowner or ability as a public servant.

One of his earliest recorded appearances sets the tone of his career. In September 1388, at Chudleigh, the vicar of Berry Pomeroy was summoned before the bishop of Exeter’s court accused of celebrating a clandestine marriage between Pomeroy and the twice-widowed Joan Chudleigh, who had recently, by common fame, been betrothed to William Amadas. A penance was imposed upon the vicar, but Pomeroy had to obtain the King’s pardon, for which, in October 1389, he paid £10 into the hanaper of the Chancery. Certainly, this marriage ‘bore the appearance of enterprise’, for it was contracted very soon after an entail had been devised by Sir John Pomeroy by which the manor of Berry Pomeroy would, in default of children of his own, revert to his sisters and their heirs, of whom Thomas’s bride was one. Thomas was well aware of this arrangement, having assisted in the legal formalities as one of Sir John’s feoffees. Much of his energy was to be spent on converting possibility into reality.

Pomeroy’s career, however, still had to be made. In February 1395 he was granted royal letters of protection as about to go to Aquitaine in the retinue of John of Gaunt; however, five months later he still tarried at home, being busy with his own affairs

Henry IV’s accession provided the turning point of his public career. Indeed, it was as ‘King’s esquire’ that, as early as March 1400, he was given an annuity of £20 from the royal revenues of Devon, and in December following, ‘for the better maintenance of his knightly estate, to which the King caused him to be exalted at his last voyage in Scotland’, he received a grant for life of lands at Hemyock ( North of Honiton) worth £8 p.a.

Meanwhile, in February 1400, he had become farmer of Oakford, ( near Tiverton in East Devon) Devon, by Exchequer lease, and four years later he was granted a share in the custody of lands at Membury( near Bampton north of Honiton), which, however, he surrendered in 1406.

Pomeroy’s annuity was to be confirmed by Henry V and by Henry VI’s council. Such liberality depended upon loyal service, and his standing may also be gauged by the willingness of the Lancastrian kings to exonerate him from the debts he owed as sheriff of Devon. On two occasions he failed to account fully for the issues of the county: owing £56 13s.4d. in 1402, he was at first committed to the Fleet, only to be pardoned ‘for his good service to the King in Scotland and Wales without wages or fees’; and in February 1415, even though he had been told that the exemption of 1402 might not be used as a precedent, he was pardoned payment of £30, in consideration of his great costs and losses in the office. It is notable, however, that he had been removed from the shrievalty in the previous year after occupying it on this occasion for only six months.

Through his marriage to Joan Chudleigh Sir Thomas Pomeroy had acquired a number of properties in the West Country. These included his wife’s dower lands in Somerset, namely one third of the manor and hundred of Frome Branche and the manors of Batheaston and Shockerwick (all demised for an annual rent of £24) which, along with Allerton, fell to her by marriage to Sir Philip Bryan (a younger son of Guy, Lord Bryan), together with the manor of Combe Ralegh in Devon, which had belonged to her first husband, Sir John St. Aubyn.

Yet the income from these estates was not sufficient to support Pomeroy’s extravagance. Shortly after his marriage he entered into a recognizance before the mayor of the Staple of Westminster in September 1388 for the sum of £83 10s.8d., and when payment became overdue and Chancery issued a writ to value his property in Somerset, Oxfordshire, Dorset and Devon, it was found that income from the St. Aubyn manor of Alston Sutton, which was worth 12 marks a year, and a rent of ten marks from Frome would help pay off the debt.

At regular intervals after this, Pomeroy received royal pardons of outlawry for failure to appear in court to answer his creditors, usually London merchants. Indeed, between 1390 and 1406 he secured six such pardons relating to debts amounting to more than £120 and owed to city vintners, saddlers, drapers, tailors, armourers, a mercer and a fishmonger, as well as to the receiver of the duchy of Cornwall.

It was perhaps Pomeroy’s shaky finances and extravagant tastes which encouraged him to increase his income from land. His great opportunity came in 1416, when Sir John Pomeroy died without issue.

Under the entail of 1387 Sir Thomas stood to come into a share, in right of his wife, of the moieties of Stockleigh, Harberton and Brixham, and presumably also, on the death of Sir John’s widow, of Berry Pomeroy itself.

A settlement of 1414 declaring Edward Pomeroy to be heir to Berry was set aside by the Crown, and Sir Thomas Pomeroy and John Cole of Nethway (son of Margaret Pomeroy and Adam? Cole) were confirmed in possession of the reversion.

Then, perhaps by dint of strong persuasion, Sir John’s widow relinquished her life interest in the estate to these same two claimants a few months before her death in 1420. It is uncertain, however, whether Sir Thomas’s tactics succeeded at Tregony in Cornwall: there, he attempted to wrest the manor from Edward and his wife by making an assault on the manor-house and imprisoning and then ousting them. The King’s Council intervened to prevent further damage and riot, and Edward apparently regained possession for a while; even so, after the death of Sir Thomas’s wife in 1422, it was said that she had held Tregony.

Of Pomeroy’s associates in Devon, little is known, but he was clearly not on good terms with the powerful Courtenays. Sir Philip Courtenay’s son, Sir John, had married his wife’s stepmother, Joan Chudleigh, and in 1402 they were engaged in a dispute over the latter’s dower lands (six manors in Devon and Cornwall), during which some of the Chudleigh property in Exeter was burnt down

Relations had not improved by 1410 when Sir John Courtenay was summoned before Parliament to answer charges made in the Commons by Pomeroy himself, sitting for the third time as a shire knight. It is noticeable that Edward Pomeroy, by contrast, was on good terms with the Courtenays, and he may well have sought their support in his struggle to gain possession of the family estates.

Sir Thomas Pomeroy later stood surety for another prominent Devon landowner, (Sir) Thomas Brooke , when the latter obtained the estates of his stepfather-in-law, the heretic and lollard leader, Sir John Oldcastle .

After Sir Thomas’s first wife’s death in 1422, he was permitted to retain the Pomeroy estates ‘by the courtesy’, they having had issue, a daughter named Isabel. She, however, died before her father’s death, which occurred on the feast of St. Laurence (either 3 Feb. or 10 Aug.) 1426.

Pomeroy’s ambition to bring the family inheritance to his cadet branch failed and Edward Pomeroy was quick to take possession. No more was heard of any claim by Joan and Margaret St. Aubyn, the grand daughters and next heirs of Sir Thomas’s first wife.

After the death of his first wife on 14 Dec 1422 & before the year was out, in March, Thomas married again. This wife was also Joanna. She was the daughter of Sir John Raleigh of Nettlecombe, Som., widow of John Whalesborough of Whalesborough, Cornwall. She survived Thomas & died 1436 to be buried at Whitefriars , Newgate in London with her daughters & a granddaughter, Alice Fitz Rafe ,wife of a Sir William Pomeroy.Johana Raleigh, Lady Pomeroy, took the veil after Thomas's death. Everything she had went to her daughters by her first marriage, Anne Molens, Alice FitzRauff and Elizabeth Hamden, her granddaughter. All except for a small portion enough to support her in some comfort the convent. Her will was made on 20 Nov. 1435 and she died before 18 Jan. 1436, when it was proved . In a book of Cornish wills there is a Will for Joan Pomeroy and amongst her bequest was one to the fabric of the church at Marhamchurch .... one cow . Marhamchurch is a tiny place close to Woolston near Bude in Cornwall. Woolston was held by the Bevilles.Her granddaughter Alice Fitz Rauff died 1471 was also buried at Grey Friars ' If she died in London, to be buried at the "grayfreres called freres menours beside Newgate, by my modres sepulture called Dame Johane Pomeray." On the day of her burial the Warden was to have 40d., every doctor 2s., and every "other frere cladde there in the same place," 12d. Bequeathed to the Friars her "candelstikkes" of silver, and her blue gown of damask to make vestments. Will dated 24 April, 1471. Proved 10 June, 1471. She was buried about the centre of the sixth bay of the Choir in S. Francis' Chapel.

Parliamentary site Refs Volumes: 1386-1421

1. E.B. Powley, House of de la Pomerai, p. xxv; C139/9/16, 40/51; CPR, 1399-1401, p. 390; Som. and Dorset N. and Q. xxviii. 120-1; PCC 19 Luffenham.

2. Reg. Brantingham ed. Hingeston-Randolph, 673-4; CPR, 1385-9, p. 296; 1388-92, p. 126; CFR, x. 262; HMC 15th Rep. VII, 140; Powley, 63.

3. Rot. Gasc. et Franc. ed Carte, i. 179; CPR, 1391-6, p. 600; 1399-1401, pp. 241, 390; 1401-5, pp. 44, 48; 1405-8, p. 142; 1413-16, pp. 39, 278; 1422-9, p. 93; CCR, 1399-1402, pp. 451-2, 460; CFR, xii. 44, 240.

4. CIMisc. v. 287; CCR, 1409-13, p. 368; Cornw. Feet of Fines (Devon and Cornw. Rec. Soc. 1950), 951; Feudal Aids, vi. 426, 511; C131/36/6; CPR, 1388-92, p. 280; 1391-6, p. 396; 1396-9, pp. 299, 304; 1401-5, pp. 143, 339; 1405-8, pp. 129, 131.

5. CFR, xiv. 198, 201, 319; xv. 266-7; CCR, 1413-19, pp. 388, 451; 1419-22, pp. 157-8; 1422-9, pp. 4-5, 83; CPR, 1388-92, p. 269; 1416-22, pp. 135, 318; Powley, 68-69; C138/47/53; C139/9/16, 40/51; Feudal Aids, vi. 417; C1/6/91.

6. RP, iii. 488; CCR, 1402-5, p. 133; 1409-13, p. 7; CFR, xiv. 75; SC8/22/1078; E28/11, 23, 27.

7. C139/40/51; PCC 19 Luffenham.

POMEROY, Roger (1629-1708), of Sandridge, Devon.

Constituency Dates DARTMOUTH 1685

Family and Education bap. 20 Sept. 1629, 1st surv. s. of Valentine Pomeroy of Sandridge, being 1st s. by 2nd w. Margaret, da. of Sir John Whiddon of Chagford. m. Joan, da. of Elias Wills of Saltash, Cornw., 2s. d.v.p. 2da. suc. fa. 1645, cos. Hugh Pomeroy in Tregony estate 1674.1

Offices Held Commr. for assessment, Devon 1673-80, j.p. 1678-89, 1703-d., Dartmouth 1680; alderman, Dartmouth 1684-Oct. 1688, freeman, Dartmouth 1684, Totnes 1688; mayor, Tiverton June-Oct. 1688.

Biography

The Devonshire Pomeroys played no part in the Civil War. Pomeroy himself must have opposed exclusion, since he remained a JP. throughout the crisis, and in 1685 he was returned as a Tory for Dartmouth, three miles from his residence.

He was appointed only to two committees in James II’s Parliament, to recommend expiring laws for revival and to consider the bill for this purpose. He seems to have been the only Devon Protestant to give unqualified affirmative answers to the lord lieutenant’s questions on the repeal of the Tests and the Penal Laws. But he was not popular among his constituents, who were reported in 1688 to be ready to elect any court candidate except Pomeroy and John Beare. A non-juror under William III, he is unlikely to have stood again, though he was restored to the commission of the peace in 1703. He was buried on 23 July 1708 at Stoke Gabriel, to which he gave a communion flagon. The main branch of the family became extinct in 1719.

CHUDLEGH

James de Chudley, witness to a Grant of William Hywish( Hewish) to John de la Pomeray, Knight, of the manors of Tremetherott, Rothwill ( ? Raffell ) and a fourth part of the manor of Truro...

Offices Held Sheriff of Devon 7 Nov. 1376-22 June 1377, 11 Dec. 1384-20 Oct. 1385, 11 Nov. 1394-9 Nov. 1395

Commr. of array, Devon Mar. 1380, Dec. 1399; oyer and terminer Nov. 1381, Oct., Nov. 1382, July 1384, Dec. 1385, Feb. 1386, Cornw. Sept. 1393, Devon Sept. 1398; against unlawful assemblies Dec. 1381, Mar., Dec. 1382; of arrest, Som., Dorset, Devon, Cornw. Feb. 1382, Devon Jan. 1392; to hear an appeal from the admiral’s ct., Feb. 1383; make proclamation against disturbers of the peace, Devon May, June 1384; perambulate the border between Cornw. and Devon, July 1386; enforce statutes relating to salmon, Devon Mar. 1388; of inquiry, Devon, Cornw. July 1389 ( Sir John Cary’s† estates), Devon Nov. 1389 (unlawful assemblies), Feb. 1392 (manor of Tawstock), Devon, Cornw. Mar. 1393 (concealments), Bristol, Som., Cornw., Devon Dec. 1399, May 1400 (concealments), Devon, Cornw. Aug. 1400 (wastes), Devon Nov. 1400 (concealment of alnage); to survey the estates of the Lords Appellant of 1388, Oct. 1397; of weirs, Devon June 1398.

J.P. Devon 8 Mar. 1382-Apr. 1385, 15 July 1389-Dec. 1391, 22 Jan. 1392-4, 16 May 1401-d.

Escheator, Devon and Cornw. 8 Dec. 1391-24 Oct. 1392.

Biography

In the last two decades of the 14th century Chudleigh was one of the most prominent men below peerage rank living in Devon. Like so many of his contemporaries he had begun his career following the profession of arms: during the celebrated dispute between Sir Robert Grosvenor and Richard, Lord Scrope of Bolton, in the court of chivalry, he recalled his service at Poitiers and then under Gaunt in Spain.

In February 1368 he was preparing to go overseas again, and a year later chose to extend his stay abroad. In neither case, however, is his destination known. From May 1372 until January 1373, when still an esquire, he was serving at sea under Sir Philip Courtenay*, admiral of the western fleet.

Chudleigh’s almost continuous public service after 1380 must have precluded many more journeys abroad, although he was a member of the earl of Devon’s retinue, which put to sea from March 1387 under the command of the admiral, Richard, earl of Arundel.

It is curious that while Chudleigh’s work on commissions made him a prominent public servant in Devon, very little is known about his personal activities. However, he was quite capable of interfering with parliamentary elections. In reply to royal writs, dated September 1386 and February 1387, ordering the burgesses of Barnstaple to pay the expenses incurred by John Henrys† in going to the Parliament of 1385 as one of their representatives, the town bailiffs stated that they were unable to do so as Henrys was an inhabitant of Somerset, not Devon, and they denied responsibility on the ground that at the time of the election Chudleigh, as sheriff of Devon, had returned Henrys at his own instance and for the sake of personal gain, without their knowledge or assent.

Similarly, although Chudleigh was closely involved in dealings with the Courtenays, from whom he held much of his land, he was able to take a strong independent line with the earl of Devon in 1391. On that occasion he and Sir William Sturmy were appointed to arrest one of the earl’s retainers, and clearly incurred Courtenay’s displeasure by proceeding with the matter legally.

Most of Chudleigh’s actions suggest that he was influential enough to do any job well, whether to perambulate a boundary to settle a dispute, to administer the oath in favour of the Lords Appellant of 1388, or to arbitrate in one of Sir Philip Courtenay’s land disputes.

Chudleigh’s position in Devon must have rested largely on his substantial property. From the earl of Devon he held six knight’s fees, including Shirwell, mainly situated in the north of the county. By 1386 he was holding Broadclyst, Halsford and Clawton in Devon and Widemouth in Cornwall, and he frequently appears in ecclesiastical records as patron of Ashton and Landcross.

In addition he presented to Loxhore in 1381 during a minority, to Ringmore in 1396 on account of an enfeoffment, and to Alverdiscott in 1401 in the absence of the patron, for whom he acted as attorney.

Chudleigh, among others, benefited from the forfeiture of the estates of Sir John Cary, chief baron of the Exchequer, who underwent exile in 1388, though it is doubtful whether the cost of lawsuits over the properties in Houndstone, Kingston Pitney and Yeovil allowed the grantees any profits. He also held tenements in Exeter, some of which he donated to St. Stephen’s church in 1388.

Chudleigh died some time between June 1401 and November 1402, and was succeeded by his son James (knight of the shire for Devon in 1426, 1429 and 1431). His widow married Sir Philip Courtenay’s son John, and her dower lands were the subject of the Courtenays’ quarrel with Chudleigh’s daughter, Joan, and her third husband, Sir Thomas Pomeroy*.

It is some indication of Chudleigh’s standing that his daughter had earlier been married successively to Sir John St. Aubyn and Sir Philip Bryan†, a papal dispensation for the latter marriage having been granted to heal ‘wars and discencions’ between Chudleigh and Guy, Lord Bryan, (Knight of the Garter) the young man’s influential father.

Joan CHUDLEIGH was born 1358 in Ashton, Devon, England. She died in Dec 1423 in Berry Pomeroy, Devon, England.

Joan married Sir John de St. AUBYN Knight on 1378 in Combe Raleigh, Devon, England.
He died 4 28 Aug 1383 in Combe Raleigh, Devon, England. They had 1 child - John St Aubyn who married Catherine Challons -
Their daughters were Joanna Chudleigh's heirs

2nd marriage to Phillip de BRYAN Knight, 2nd son of Sir Guy de Bryan - Knight of the Garter- Phillip died in 1387. Treasure trove of information found found here in Sutton Poytz
Lord Bryan was an extremely influential man holding a number of important posts and was clearly a personal friend of the King. The family that originated in Devon (Tor Bryan), & held other land (such as Hazelbury Bryan) in Dorset.

POMEROY, Thomas Esq in 1388 married Lady Joanna Chudleigh , widow of Sir John St Aubyn & Sir Phillip de Bryan without banns or a licence from the king, in a secret marriage in the aisle of the church at Berry Pomeroy. He was knighted in 1400 .

she was daughter of James Chudleigh married Joan de POMERAY, daughter of Henry de POMERAY. (her mother died before 1416.)

married (1) Joan, da. of Sir Henry Pomeroy of Berry Pomeroy, Devon, 1 da. Johanna Chudleigh;

(2) Joan, da. of John Beaumont;

(3) Joan, da. of Sir Alexander Champernowne of Bere Ferrers, Devon,
1son . James Chudleigh Marriage Information: Joan CHAMPERNOWNE, daughter of Sir Alexander CHAMPERNOUN and Joan de FERRERS. (Joan CHAMPERNOWNE was born about 1382 in Bere Ferrers, Devonshire, England and died in 1419.)

Parliamentary History - MP between 1381 & 1394 knighted by 1381

son of . and h. of John Chudleigh of Ashton by Joan, da. and h. of Sir John Beauchamp of Ryme, Devon.

Offices Held Sheriff, Devon 7 Nov. 1376-22 June 1377, 11 Dec. 1384-20 Oct. 1385, 11 Nov. 1394-9 Nov. 1395.

J.P. Devon 8 Mar. 1382-Apr. 1385, 15 July 1389-Dec. 1391, 22 Jan. 1392-4, 16 May 1401-d.

Escheator, Devon and Cornw. 8 Dec. 1391-24 Oct. 1392.

Sources:

The Herald's Visitations of the County of Cornwall, Pomeroy of Tregony, p. 381; The History and Genealogy of the Pomeroy Family..., Albert A. Pomeroy, 1912, p. 56; The History of Parliament: British Pollitical, Social & Local History: Sir James Chudleigh of Ashton & Shirwell; GEN-MEDIEVAL-L Archives

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