STOKENHAM & Kingsbridge

Other records Mention made of STOKENHAM in the IPM of Agnes Bowring of Bowringsleig   widow of Pomeroy nee Huckmore  

The 1519 IPM of Agnes Bowring Widow of Thomas Pomeroy nee Huckmore mentions that she held the manor of Stokenham for £6 a year from Countess of Salisbury –( Margaret Plantagenet, daughter of George Duke of Clarence, wife of Sir Richard Pole and mother of Reginald Pole -she was executed for treason in 1541 & later beatified) Research seems to indicate she held lands within the parish rather than the Royal Manor lands.

Agnes Bowring ( nee Huckmore widow Pomeoy) also seized of Bowden Manor which she granted to  Thomasine her daughter & her husband  William Barrett .

Stokenham Priory - see right hand  column

2006 Archaeological research into medieval and Tudor manor house abandoned in the 1580s within ‘Manor Field’ immediately to the east of the church. Stokenham manor house, abandoned in 1585 but possibly dating back to at least the 12th century.
The church of Stokenham is thought to represent the Anglo-Saxon minster church of Coleridge hundred, whose royal estate centre was 1.5km to the west at Chillington.

  QUEEN KATHERINES Parrs RENTAL: 1547  mentions that  towards the end of his reign quote “ Henry VIII gave Stokenham Manor to Katherine,(PARR) his sixth and final bride, as part of her marriage dowry.  He had previously given it to Anne of Cleves the 4th wife whose marriage  to Henry VIII was annulled. 

When Henry died in 1547 the Dowager Queen, Katherine Parr (who very quickly married her long time love interest the dubious and self seeking Admiral Sir Thomas Seymour & then quickly died  in childbirth ) caused her officials to make an exact assessment of the rental income she would get from Stokenham. The ‘rental’ which resulted is a useful document  in the study of Stokenham’s history. 

On the 18th of March in 1547 a special session of the manorial court was held at Stokenham. To this court of the Lady Katherine, Queen Dowager (d 1548 in childbirth)  came representatives of all her tenants from Stokenham town and the surrounding villages of the manor.
The Queen Dowager’s steward, in charge of the court, assembled, with the help of those attending, a complete list of all the parts of the manor, the names of those who occupied each part and the rental which they were paying. 

There is a  paper which is a summary and discussion of Queen Katherine’s Rental. The rental is a useful document for the study of Stokenham in Tudor times. 

Henry VIII gave Stokenham to his final queen, Catherine Parr, as her as part of her Dower ,

a Dowry came in with the bride ; Dowers went out as the maintenance of a widow after her husband died . 

Henry died in January 1547 &  6 months later Catherine Parr  married Tom Seymour - her properties became his ; she died in childbirth 10 months later &  he got chopped for treason a year later  ...&  into the Seymour pot Stokenham dropped !

2nd layer of property 'ownership'  is Gylle held it from the Crown......Anna Cammel married him as her 2nd husband & got the lot when Gylle died - this  was carried her  into her last marriage to Henry Pomeroy .....and on to his son Thomas...

Henry VIII also gave it as Dower  to  another wife - Anne of Cleaves -  she must have had to give it back - she lived for 10 years after the king Henry. 

 Notable residents of West Alvington

Thomas Bowring (died 1504), Lord Chief Justice of Ireland and the principal local landowner.

Robert Bowring (died 1514) eldest son of Thomas, MP for Plymouth.

Here was  lovely hunt with a possible ( reasonable)  conclusion

Devon Record Office 3799M-0/ET/23/2
1355  Contents: Grant for 11 years
1. Henry of la Pomeray, lord of Bury
2. John Wyckyng

one virgate of land of the (30 acres ) in the ward of Bymdon lying on the north side of the road leading from STOKENHAM to Kingsbridge in length, of which one headland reaches to the lord's meadow

AJP searched every available map looking  for Bymdon, both on-line; olde & new maps   & OS paper maps of the area, and found nothing, not even a hint of the 30 acres referred to  .and concluded it muat have either vanished for some reason OR the transcribers got it  wrong and it had a different name - so what else might it have been called ?
In the days of scribes writing what they thought they heard  it is just possible it was misheard & was in fact Kyndon Barton -
 
Kyndon is a small but significant late medieval manor house  a mile from Sherford ; at one time noted for its stained heraldic windows;  it is described as an early C15th  quadrangular house with three gateways, one with a  tower that was standing until about C18th.

The thickness of the walls of the present porch suggest they are the remains of an original tower. seen below
The walls of a barn may represent the chapel. Now mainly Tudor and later ; formerly the residence of the Halse family who built the present house in the C15th

There are Visitations for Hals/ Halse of Kenedon

and here is the connection

There is a Halse mentioned in connection with Gylle as well as John Attwill of Exeter and John Aleyne of Poole.

 
Gylle bought Bowden manor  from Richard Pomeroy ot Totnes 

 John Rolle (born 1563) in 1603 married Phillipa Halse (d.1655), daughter of Richard Halse of Kenedon. Their eldest son was Henry Rolle who married Margaret Ford, daughter of John Ford (died 1538) of Ashburton & half sister of John Ford who married Mary Pomeroy 1566 & Henry Rolle's sister was Honor who married Thomas Pomeroy

Here is Keynedon Barton  in the hands of an expert Stonemason

https://qualifiedstonemason.com/portfolio/stonewalling/keynedon-barton/

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Garston & Bowden House close to Totnes
which was the hub of social & merchantile activity
although  there is another Bowden hear Kingsbridge , close to Stokenham. In all there are 30 places, farms mainly called Bowden listed in Devon

GARSTON;  after the Dissolution of the Monasteries  between 1530 - 1541

C 1/1058/70 John RYDGEWAY v. Richard POMERAY, esquire.: Grange of Garston, part of the demesnes of the late priory of Totnes.: DEVON. 1538-1544

C 3/170/65 Short title: Savery v Savery. Plaintiffs: Richard Savery. Defendants: Christopher Savery and another. Subject: manors of Little Totnes and Rattery; rectory of Rattery; and property in Great Totnes, Garston, Berry Pomeroy and Dartington, Devon. Document type: [pleadings]. 1558-1579

Date: 1544 - 1551 Source: The Catalogue of The National Archives ( found by AML)

C 1/1058/70 John RYDGEWAY v. Richard POMERAY, esquire

Grange of Garston, part of the demesnes of the late priory of Totnes.: 

DEVON. 26 June 1543: Sir Edward North,  521 pounds..purchase money of Totnes and Garston, Brixham alias Upon in Brixham( Upper Brixham) , Indenture. Garston, Totnes Priory Previously owned by John Champernon and John Ridgeway, gent. . Smith was Totnes merchant. 

Deeds disposing of Priory Lands after the Dissolution

 2779 M/1/3  1538 Contents: Arbitration

1. Richard Pomerye of Bowdon, Esq.

2. John Pelyton and Roger Crowte of Great Tottenes

Premises: certain messuages, lands and tenements in Blawden and Tibicombe

Award in favour of 1. 2. to quitclaim to 1. their rights in the lands - support 1.'s title and hand over any deeds in return for 40 marks paid to them by 1.

Contents: Lease for 2000 years

1. John Prowse of Totnes, gentleman and Katheren his wife

2. John Giles of Bowdon, Esq. ( The wealthiestwool merchant in Totnes  who had bought Bowden Manor from Richard Pomeroy ) 

Premises: three closes, two called Goddicroft containing 40 acres, one called Brocks Parke containing 10 acres, one meadow called Ven Meadowe lying between Goddicroft and Brocks Parke, all now or lately in the tenure of Richard Pomarye, Esq., lying in Totnes

Annual Rent: One grain of wheat
Seals: 2, (1 damaged)

From the King to Champernon, Rydgeway and Walter Smyth.

1542: Katharine Champernon receives lease of Totnes Priory, Garston Grange.  grants lease 

Richard Pomeroy  held lease of the Grange at Garston of ( from) Champernoun, (C 1/1058/70) who purchased a 25 year lease of the Manor of Little Totnes from John Ford;   Both were church properties subject to closure and made available by the King.  

Allington & Chillington were Royal manors  & Kingsbridge town arose  around  the bridge between the two.  The manor of Kingsbridge was held by Buckfast Abbey, as part of Churchstow 

West Alvington is a 1 miles SWS of Kingsbridge  & contains Bowringsleigh House home of Agnes Huckmore after she married Sir Thomas Bowring, a successful lawyer
Gerston is on the old Kingsbridge road just within the Totnes parish boundaries
East Allington  is 4 miles NE of  Kingsbridge  a village close  to Fallapit House seat of Fortesques

Heritage Gateway 2007, Stokenham '07 (Report - Excavation). SDV342104.

Archaeological Excavation to explore the medieval and Tudor manor house abandoned in the 16th century in Manor Field to the east of Stokenham parish church. 

Trench 1 was 25 metres long by 5 metres wide and revealed the remains of one of the rooms of the manor house with substantial wall foundations suggesting a building of at least two storeys. A surviving fireplace was exposed with artefacts dating to the 14th and 16th centuries and a collapsed sculpted sandstone window pieces suggested a high status building.
Demolition material included decorated ceramic ridge tiles and flagstones and tiles decorated with a fish design possibly from the manor's chapel. Mortared drains were also exposed. Artefacts recovered included medieval iron nails, horseshoes, buckles and brooches. 

Trench 2 was 10 metres long by 3 metres wide revealed the midden identified during the field-walking survey in 2005. 

The dark soil contained animal bones, oyster shells, bronze pins and metalworking evidence. The walls of a building on a flattened terrace and a mettled road were also exposed. The alignment of the road suggests it was one of the main routes into the manorial complex. 

Trench 3 was 2 metres by 2 metres and investigated an intersection of ditches identified in the geophysical survey. Medieval material was recovered from the ditch fills.

OLD Map here

GENUKI  - STOKENHAM, or Stockingham includes Chillington, Beeson, Beesands, Halsands, Kellaton, or Kellington, and Torcross, several of them are fishing villages,  and the hamlets of Bickerton, Dunstone, Cornborough, and scattered houses.

It belonged in the time of King John 1199 ( 12th C) to Matther Fitz Herbert then the crown and passed to Courtenay as the honor of Plympton - Edward I gave it to Ralph Mortimer, his son in law from him it descended to Montecute and Poole to Hastings Earl of Huntingdon who sold it to Ameridith who connects to Pomeroy via Fortscue - Widdecomb, in this parish, was a seat of the Heles.

There is an unusually rich body of documentary evidence relating to settlement and economy for the medieval parish of Stokenham (Fox 2001; Finberg 1950-1; Roberts 1979). 

This provides a rare opportunity to link the surviving archaeological remains with this historical information for a persistent locus of medieval power and belief.

The initial results suggests there are remains of medieval peasant farm buildings located adjacent to the medieval and Tudor manor house. The house is the shippon – the lower end cattle byre – of a longhouse. Meanwhile, the W-E aligned wall indicates a later addition of a bed chamber to an existing single-roomed N-S aligned longhouse.

The size of population in medieval times suggest economic wealth but the early manor was ruinous by 1610 but it seems the the church was the Anglo Saxon minster.   In the middle ages the nave was used for civil as well as religious purposes and was the centre of village life. Pews had not yet been installed and here magistrates dispensed justice, folk dancing was not uncommon, and food was often provided.

Arms were stored in the church and it is said that bows and arrows were found amongst its roof timbers.

Folklore has it that in early times a wedding could take place in the church porch sometimes with the unwilling girl , the bride,was held at sword point.

NOTES

  Alvington and Chillington were valuable Royal Manor  from Domesday and the  town of Kingsbridge  arose close to the bridge over the  river that separated the two manors at the head of the Salcombe Estuary.

STOKENHAM Priory estate in 17th C belonged to Sir Gregory Norton

Coleridge, is a handsome new mansion, in the Elizabethan style, the seat of John Allen, Esq 

The Nicholls, Edmunds, Pitts, Randall, Cole, and other families have estates in the parish, mostly freehold.

The Church (St. Barnabas,) is a large antique structure, with a low tower and six bells.

The Rectorial tithes of STOKENHAM were given to Anne of Cleves in 1539 for her support after her marriage to Henry VIII was annulled.

STOKENHAM seems to have been a place of some significance . It had a minster church - defined thus - a minster is a church attached to a monastery or established during Anglo-Saxon times as a missionary teaching church.  

There has been a great deal of archeology done in Stokenham because the church is Huge  compared to the size of the settlement around it. 

Lands in Bowdon  ( Stokenham )  held by Countess  (Salisbury). , worth 13s 50.

AML found  that William and Thomasine Barrett were still seized of the premises.  The manor of Bowden  held by Margaret Countess of Salisbury and her manor of STOKENHAM worth by the year £1/2 /6.

Lands in Tybbecombe are held by John Holwey and Henry Walrons worth 40 s. a year.

Stokenham came to the Pomeroys from GYLL In addition to Bowden, Ashprington and Langton.
Dartmouth merchant Thomas Gyll senior; Mayor of that busy port and collector of harbour dues & taxes, had properties in Great and Little Totnes, Stokenham, Loddiswell; Fenne, Churchstowe, Averton Gifford, 1/3rd of  Widecombe in Stokenham. Also Bloudon & Tibbycombe. 

 Anna/Amy  Cammel as a lady of independent wealth with control over her own properties and money made a 2nd marriag.  Thomas GYLL, the younger, of Woodhuish,&  Hacch Arundel near Loddiswell in the South Hams of Devon & a merchant like his father.

From this marriage that  Anna had Bowden at Totnes & Stokenham, with other properties in the Totnes area.
Her only daughter Joanna Barrett married William Kelloway and her granddaughter Agnes Kelloway was married to Thomas Pomeroy son of her 3rd husband Henry Pomeroy. whose daughter Thomasine married a William Barrett.

Amy /Anna Cammell  was widow of 1st Henry Barrett &  2ndly of Thomas Gylle , of Hacche Arundel ( Hatch) near Loddiswell a Dartmouth merchant who died in about 1476,   chose as her 3rd husband Baron Henry Pomeroy .
She is recorded by Vivian as having one child, a daughter Joanna Barrett , who married William Kelloway & their daughter Agnes Kelloway married Thomas Pomeroy  the 3rd son of Amy/Anna Camells  3rd husband .

However it seems she may have had a child by her 3rd husband
Anna /Amy had no children by Gylle  and married Baron Sir Henry Pomeroy as an independently wealthy lady. In 1481 they may have had a son Henry, with  Anna dying at that time . After  his father Baron Sir Henry died in 1487 the orphaned Henry , who would have been about 6 years old,  may have gone into the household of his much older half brother, Thomas Pomeroy  & his wife Agnes Kelloway who had married in 1478 and had sons.

 STOKENHAM: One month from St Michael, 21 Henry VI [27 October 1442].

Parties: querents, Thomas Gylle, John Burhed' and Thomas Bosse,
deforciants. William Quatford' and Christian, his wife, 

Property: 3 messuages and 3 carucates of land in Fenne, Chirchestowe and Aueton' Gyffard' and a third part of the manor of Wydecomb' in Stokenham.
(Averton Giffard is near Modbury & not far from Agnes Huckmore widow Pomeroy Lady Bowring, home at Bowringsleigh ) Pomeroys ) 

In 1547 Richard Pomeroy sold WOODLEIGH, which was part of Stokenham.. He also sold Combe.

WOODLEIGH 3½ miles north from Kingsbridge, note that it is not far from Fallapit which was & still is a FORTESCUE property

Garston Grange

Despite an extensive search I have not found Garston Grange listed in English Heritage.

It is a farm now, and lies on the A381 just after it crosses Green Lane at Bowden Cross. From the satellite images  there appears to be evidence of the grange farm & the property still includes a very large fish pond.  It is very close to Bowden House home of Richard Pomeroy until about 1589

 2779 M/1/3  1538 Contents: Arbitration

1. Richard Pomerye of Bowdon, Esq.

2. John Pelyton and Roger Crowte of Great Tottenes

Premises: certain messuages, lands and tenements in Blawden and Tibicombe

Award in favour of Pomeroye . Pelyton & Crowte  to quitclaim to Pomeroye  their rights in the lands - support Pomeroye's title and hand over any deeds in return for 40 marks paid to them by Pomeroye

.

C 1/1058/70 John RYDGEWAY v. Richard POMERAY, esquire.: Grange of Garston, part of the demesnes of the late priory of Totnes.: DEVON. 1538-1544

C 3/170/65   Savery v Savery. Plaintiffs:

Richard Savery. Defendants: Christopher Savery and another.

Subject: manors of Little Totnes and Rattery; rectory of Rattery( near Ashburton) ; and property in Great Totnes, Garston, Berry Pomeroy and Dartington, Devon. Document type: [pleadings]. 1558-1579

Date: 1544 - 1551 Source: The Catalogue of The National Archives

C 1/1058/70 John RYDGEWAY v. Richard POMERAY, esquire    Grange of Garston, part of the demesnes of the late priory of Totnes.: 

DEVON. 26 June 1543: Sir Edward North,  £521 purchase money of Totnes and Garston, Brixham alias Upon in Brixham( Upper Brixham) ,

 Indenture. Garston, Totnes Priory Previously owned by John Champernon and John Ridgeway, gent.   

Deeds disposing of Priory Lands after the Dissolution

Contents: Lease for 2000 years

1. John Prowse of Totnes, gentleman and Katheren his wife

2. John Giles of Bowdon, Esq.

Premises: three closes, two called Goddicroft containing 40 acres, one called Brocks Parke containing 10 acres, one meadow called Ven Meadowe lying between Goddicroft and Brocks Parke, all now or lately in the tenure of Richard Pomarye, Esq., lying in Totnes

Annual Rent: One grain of wheat : Seals: 2, (1 damaged)

From (the) King to Champernon, Rydgeway and Walter Smyth.

1542: Katharine Champernon receives lease of Totnes Priory, Garston Grange.  grants lease