The historic manor of Tawstock was situated in North Devon, in the hundred of Fremington, [1] 2 miles south of Barnstaple, England. According to Pole [2] the feudal baron of Barnstaple Henry de Tracy (died 1274) made Tawstock his seat, apparently having abandoned Barnstaple Castle as the chief residence of the barony. [3] Many of the historic lords of the manor are commemorated by monuments in St Peter's Church, the parish church of Tawstock (situated to the east of the manor house) which in the opinion of Pevsner contains "the best collection in the county (of Devon) apart from those in the cathedral", [4] and in the opinion of Hoskins "contains the finest collection of monuments in Devon and one of the most notable in England". [5]
The manor house, known in the 17th century as Tawstock House and today known as Tawstock Court, is situated at the west end of the parish church and is in the Georgian neo-gothic architectural style, having replaced the former Tudor mansion which was destroyed by fire in 1787. The only survival from the earlier house is the splendid Tudor gatehouse with the 1574 datestone, one of only a few in Devon. Some of the buildings on this property are Heritage listed including St Michael's School (now a residence), the Stable Block, garden structures, the Gatehouse and other gates, and the Coach House (all Grade II). [6]
The Church of St Peter is a Grade I listed property. A church existed at this location circa the 12th century, but was extensively modified and enlarged. According to the listing summary, "the crossing tower, north and south transepts and aisles were added" in the 14th century; additional modifications were made in the next two centuries before a restoration in 1867-1868. [7]
The Elizabethan mansion re-built by William Bourchier, 3rd Earl of Bath, no longer exists apart from the gatehouse, with date-stone 1574. Four years after Sir Bourchier Wrey, 7th Baronet, inherited the estate the house burned down in 1787 and was rebuilt by him in the Neo-Gothic style by about 1800, when Rev. John Swete described visiting it in his travel journal: "Entering through a gateway of antient date by the stables I arrived in front of Tawstock House the seat of Sir Bourchier Wrey which when completed (for it is now but a shell) will be one of the finest houses in the county". [8] Part of the Elizabethan house survives today on the south front. The north front was re-modelled in 1885. [9]
The principal east front, with crenellated parapet and two end turrets, faces towards St Peter's Parish Church and has an extensive view across the River Taw to Bishops Tawton village and Codden Hill. Sir Robert Bourchier Sherard Wrey, 11th Baronet (1855–1917) was the last to live at Tawstock Court and "to keep house in the old manner". [10] In about 1940 it damaged by fire and was restored and let by the 13th Baronet to St Michael's Preparatory School. His nephew and heir, the 14th Baronet sold Tawstock Court to the school in the 1970s.
The school continued to occupy Tawstock Court until 2012 when it closed due to insolvency. On 17 July 2012 the property with 32 acres was purchased from the administrator by a property investor and developer, as a private residence. [11] As a condition of the sale, the nursery school division of St Michael's School continued to operate (in 2013) in the stable blocks to the immediate west of the house. [12]
A building described as "a folly, built in form of look-out tower" located near the Manor was dubbed "The Tower" in its 1965 Grade II listing report (Entry #1253651). The structure was restored and converted into a home that was listed for sale in 2019/2020 as "Tawstock Castle". Some reports states that the tower was thought to have been built by Sir Bourchier Wrey and subsequently expanded. [13] The Historic England summary simply indicates that it probably originated in the late 18th century. [14] An article in Country Life (magazine) referred to the structure as a "baby Windsor Castle". [15] [16]
This church is very unusual in having a tower over the crossing and not as usual at the west end. Only a few other churches in Devon display this feature, for example at Crediton, Colyton and Axminster. [17]
The "Bourchier Pew" (or "Manorial Pew") in the north transept was made in about 1550 in Franco-Flemish early Renaissance style, [18] and decorated with Bourchier knots, it was used by the lords of the manor of Tawstock. The unusual and small manorial pew [a] has been mistaken for a confessional due to its box-like appearance.
The Bourchier knot is much in evidence within the church, in windows, on bench-ends and on monuments. Much detail concerning the administration of the manor in the 17th century survives in the form of the household accounts maintained by the 5th Earl of Bath and his wife and include a complete inventory of the household contents room by room in 1648. [20]
In the Domesday Book of 1086 it was recorded as TAVESTOCHE, the 40th of 72 holdings in Devon held in demesne by King William the Conqueror. [21] There were approximately 48.5 households in the settlement at that time making it larger than about 80 percent of other settlements. [22]
Matilda de Braose was given 2/3rds of the manor of Tawstock by her childless aunt Loretta, Countess of Leicester. Matilda married Henry de Tracy (died 1274), feudal baron of Barnstaple, who according to Pole [2] made Tawstock his seat, apparently having abandoned Barnstaple Castle as the chief residence of the Barons of Barnstaple. [3] Tawstock then descended via her daughter Eve de Tracy., by her husband Henry de Tracy (died 1274), feudal baron of Barnstaple.
Henry de Tracy's heir to the entire barony, including 2/3rds of the manor of Tawstock, was his granddaughter Maud de Brian (or Briene) (died before 1279), daughter of Guy de Brian of Laugharne Castle, Carmarthenshire by his wife Eve de Tracy, daughter of Henry de Tracy. [28] Maud's first husband was Nicholas FitzMartin (died 1260), who had pre-deceased his father Nicholas FitzMartin (died 1282), feudal baron of Blagdon, Somerset. [29] Maud married secondly Geoffrey de Camville (died 1308), of Clifton Campville, Staffordshire, who had summons to attend the king at Portsmouth, with horse and arms, to embark in the expedition then proceeding to Gascony. He was subsequently summoned to parliament as Baron Camville, of Clifton, in the county of Stafford, from 23 June 1295 to 22 February 1307. [30] Camville survived her by about 29 years during which time he retained possession of the barony, including 2/3rds of the manor of Tawstock, under the curtesy of England.
The barony was recovered on Geoffrey's death by Maud's son William FitzMartin (died 1324) whose son and heir William FitzMartin died sine prole in 1326.
The heirs of William FitzMartin (died 1326) were his surviving sister Eleanor FitzMartin (died 1342), who died childless, albeit having married twice, and James Audley, 2nd Baron Audley (died 1386), the son of his other sister Joan FitzMartin (died 1322), by her second husband Nicholas Audley, 1st Baron Audley (died 1316) of Heleigh Castle, Staffordshire. James Audley thus in 1342 inherited his childless aunt Eleanor's moiety of the barony of Barnstaple, giving him possession of the whole, including 2/3rds of the manor of Tawstock. In 1370 James Audley, 2nd Baron, settled the manor of Tawstock in tail male successively to his three sons from his second marriage, Thomas, Rodeland and James, who all died without children. [31] On the death of James Audley, 2nd Baron Audley (1312/13–1386) in 1386 the barony of Barnstaple, including 2/3rds of the manor of Tawstock, passed to his surviving son, Nicholas Audley, 3rd Baron Audley (c. 1328 – 1391), who died without issue. His co-heiresses were his two full-sisters Joan and Margaret and his half-sister, also Margaret, who inherited Tawstock:
The FitzWarin family were powerful Marcher Lords seated at Whittington Castle in Shropshire and at Alveston in Gloucestershire. The title Baron FitzWarin was created by writ of summons for Fulk FitzWarin in 1295. The descent of the manor of Tawstock in the FitzWarin family is as follows: [35]
Sir Richard Hankford (c. 1397 – 1431) (grandson and heir of Sir William Hankford (died 1422) of Annery, Devon, Lord Chief Justice of England) married as his first wife the heiress of Tawstock Elizabeth FitzWarin, 8th Baroness FitzWarin (c. 1404 – c. 1427). They had no male children. Upon her death the barony must have been in abeyance between her daughters Thomasine Hankford (1423–1453), born and baptised at Tawstock, [40] and Elizabeth Hankford (c. 1424 – 1433) until the death of the latter in 1433, when Thomasine became 9th Baroness. By Thomasine's marriage to William Bourchier, 9th Baron FitzWarin (1407–1470), the estates including Tawstock passed into the Bourchier family, which originated at the manor of Little Easton in Essex.
The later heir of the FitzWarins was the Bourchier family, Earls of Bath and Barons FitzWarin, who made Tawstock their seat and were highly influential in Barnstaple society and politics. They also inherited via the Audleys other manors formerly part of the barony of Barnstaple, including Nymet Tracy, [41] St Marychurch, [42] Kingston, [43] Marwood [44] and Upexe. [45] Another manor which descended from the Audleys was Holne on the River Dart, which was later used as a hunting estate ("Holne Chase") by the Wreys. [46] Their 17th century landholdings in total comprised 36 manors in the counties of Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Berkshire. [47] The Bourchier Barnstaple townhouse is thought to survive as no. 62 Boutport Street, [48] with its surviving ornate plaster barrel-ceilings dated 1620 (or 1629 [49]), showing the arms of Bourchier, [49] which survives next to the Royal and Fortescue Hotel, and was converted in about 1760 to premises of the "Golden Lion" coaching inn. [50] It was converted to premises for the National Westminster Bank in 1936, [49] in 1991 housed a branch of the Woolwich Building Society [51] and in 2014 is a restaurant. The Bourchier family, the Devon branch of which, seated at Tawstock Court, was later created Earls of Bath, retained the manor of Bampton until at least the time of Risdon (died 1640) who states in his Survey of Devon that "the Earl of Bath is lord of this manor". [52] The descent of Bampton was as follows:
The heir of the Bourchiers was the Wrey family of Trebeigh Manor, St Ive, Cornwall. [75] On the death of Henry Bourchier, 5th Earl of Bath (died 1654), the last in the male line, the title became extinct. The co-heiresses to the Bourchier lands became the three daughters of his first cousin once removed Edward Bourchier, 4th Earl of Bath (1590–1636). The 3rd daughter, Lady Anne Bourchier (1631-?), married firstly James Cranfield, 2nd Earl of Middlesex, the issue of which marriage was soon extinct [61] and secondly to Sir Chichester Wrey, 3rd Baronet (1628–1668), whose descendants inherited the principal Bourchier seat of Tawstock. The Devon biographer John Prince (died 1723) stated that in his day the most part of Bampton remained the posterity of the former Earls of Bath and was the "noble seat" of Lady Wrey, dowager of Sir Bourchier Wrey, 4th Baronet (died 1696). [76]
The descent of Tawstock in the Wrey family was as follows:
The heir apparent to the baronetcy is Harry David Bourchier Wrey (born 1984), eldest son of the 15th Baronet.
The historic manor of Tawstock was situated in North Devon, in the hundred of Fremington, [1] 2 miles south of Barnstaple, England. According to Pole [2] the feudal baron of Barnstaple Henry de Tracy (died 1274) made Tawstock his seat, apparently having abandoned Barnstaple Castle as the chief residence of the barony. [3] Many of the historic lords of the manor are commemorated by monuments in St Peter's Church, the parish church of Tawstock (situated to the east of the manor house) which in the opinion of Pevsner contains "the best collection in the county (of Devon) apart from those in the cathedral", [4] and in the opinion of Hoskins "contains the finest collection of monuments in Devon and one of the most notable in England". [5]
The manor house, known in the 17th century as Tawstock House and today known as Tawstock Court, is situated at the west end of the parish church and is in the Georgian neo-gothic architectural style, having replaced the former Tudor mansion which was destroyed by fire in 1787. The only survival from the earlier house is the splendid Tudor gatehouse with the 1574 datestone, one of only a few in Devon. Some of the buildings on this property are Heritage listed including St Michael's School (now a residence), the Stable Block, garden structures, the Gatehouse and other gates, and the Coach House (all Grade II). [6]
The Church of St Peter is a Grade I listed property. A church existed at this location circa the 12th century, but was extensively modified and enlarged. According to the listing summary, "the crossing tower, north and south transepts and aisles were added" in the 14th century; additional modifications were made in the next two centuries before a restoration in 1867-1868. [7]
The Elizabethan mansion re-built by William Bourchier, 3rd Earl of Bath, no longer exists apart from the gatehouse, with date-stone 1574. Four years after Sir Bourchier Wrey, 7th Baronet, inherited the estate the house burned down in 1787 and was rebuilt by him in the Neo-Gothic style by about 1800, when Rev. John Swete described visiting it in his travel journal: "Entering through a gateway of antient date by the stables I arrived in front of Tawstock House the seat of Sir Bourchier Wrey which when completed (for it is now but a shell) will be one of the finest houses in the county". [8] Part of the Elizabethan house survives today on the south front. The north front was re-modelled in 1885. [9]
The principal east front, with crenellated parapet and two end turrets, faces towards St Peter's Parish Church and has an extensive view across the River Taw to Bishops Tawton village and Codden Hill. Sir Robert Bourchier Sherard Wrey, 11th Baronet (1855–1917) was the last to live at Tawstock Court and "to keep house in the old manner". [10] In about 1940 it damaged by fire and was restored and let by the 13th Baronet to St Michael's Preparatory School. His nephew and heir, the 14th Baronet sold Tawstock Court to the school in the 1970s.
The school continued to occupy Tawstock Court until 2012 when it closed due to insolvency. On 17 July 2012 the property with 32 acres was purchased from the administrator by a property investor and developer, as a private residence. [11] As a condition of the sale, the nursery school division of St Michael's School continued to operate (in 2013) in the stable blocks to the immediate west of the house. [12]
A building described as "a folly, built in form of look-out tower" located near the Manor was dubbed "The Tower" in its 1965 Grade II listing report (Entry #1253651). The structure was restored and converted into a home that was listed for sale in 2019/2020 as "Tawstock Castle". Some reports states that the tower was thought to have been built by Sir Bourchier Wrey and subsequently expanded. [13] The Historic England summary simply indicates that it probably originated in the late 18th century. [14] An article in Country Life (magazine) referred to the structure as a "baby Windsor Castle". [15] [16]
This church is very unusual in having a tower over the crossing and not as usual at the west end. Only a few other churches in Devon display this feature, for example at Crediton, Colyton and Axminster. [17]
The "Bourchier Pew" (or "Manorial Pew") in the north transept was made in about 1550 in Franco-Flemish early Renaissance style, [18] and decorated with Bourchier knots, it was used by the lords of the manor of Tawstock. The unusual and small manorial pew [a] has been mistaken for a confessional due to its box-like appearance.
The Bourchier knot is much in evidence within the church, in windows, on bench-ends and on monuments. Much detail concerning the administration of the manor in the 17th century survives in the form of the household accounts maintained by the 5th Earl of Bath and his wife and include a complete inventory of the household contents room by room in 1648. [20]
In the Domesday Book of 1086 it was recorded as TAVESTOCHE, the 40th of 72 holdings in Devon held in demesne by King William the Conqueror. [21] There were approximately 48.5 households in the settlement at that time making it larger than about 80 percent of other settlements. [22]
Matilda de Braose was given 2/3rds of the manor of Tawstock by her childless aunt Loretta, Countess of Leicester. Matilda married Henry de Tracy (died 1274), feudal baron of Barnstaple, who according to Pole [2] made Tawstock his seat, apparently having abandoned Barnstaple Castle as the chief residence of the Barons of Barnstaple. [3] Tawstock then descended via her daughter Eve de Tracy., by her husband Henry de Tracy (died 1274), feudal baron of Barnstaple.
Henry de Tracy's heir to the entire barony, including 2/3rds of the manor of Tawstock, was his granddaughter Maud de Brian (or Briene) (died before 1279), daughter of Guy de Brian of Laugharne Castle, Carmarthenshire by his wife Eve de Tracy, daughter of Henry de Tracy. [28] Maud's first husband was Nicholas FitzMartin (died 1260), who had pre-deceased his father Nicholas FitzMartin (died 1282), feudal baron of Blagdon, Somerset. [29] Maud married secondly Geoffrey de Camville (died 1308), of Clifton Campville, Staffordshire, who had summons to attend the king at Portsmouth, with horse and arms, to embark in the expedition then proceeding to Gascony. He was subsequently summoned to parliament as Baron Camville, of Clifton, in the county of Stafford, from 23 June 1295 to 22 February 1307. [30] Camville survived her by about 29 years during which time he retained possession of the barony, including 2/3rds of the manor of Tawstock, under the curtesy of England.
The barony was recovered on Geoffrey's death by Maud's son William FitzMartin (died 1324) whose son and heir William FitzMartin died sine prole in 1326.
The heirs of William FitzMartin (died 1326) were his surviving sister Eleanor FitzMartin (died 1342), who died childless, albeit having married twice, and James Audley, 2nd Baron Audley (died 1386), the son of his other sister Joan FitzMartin (died 1322), by her second husband Nicholas Audley, 1st Baron Audley (died 1316) of Heleigh Castle, Staffordshire. James Audley thus in 1342 inherited his childless aunt Eleanor's moiety of the barony of Barnstaple, giving him possession of the whole, including 2/3rds of the manor of Tawstock. In 1370 James Audley, 2nd Baron, settled the manor of Tawstock in tail male successively to his three sons from his second marriage, Thomas, Rodeland and James, who all died without children. [31] On the death of James Audley, 2nd Baron Audley (1312/13–1386) in 1386 the barony of Barnstaple, including 2/3rds of the manor of Tawstock, passed to his surviving son, Nicholas Audley, 3rd Baron Audley (c. 1328 – 1391), who died without issue. His co-heiresses were his two full-sisters Joan and Margaret and his half-sister, also Margaret, who inherited Tawstock:
The FitzWarin family were powerful Marcher Lords seated at Whittington Castle in Shropshire and at Alveston in Gloucestershire. The title Baron FitzWarin was created by writ of summons for Fulk FitzWarin in 1295. The descent of the manor of Tawstock in the FitzWarin family is as follows: [35]
Sir Richard Hankford (c. 1397 – 1431) (grandson and heir of Sir William Hankford (died 1422) of Annery, Devon, Lord Chief Justice of England) married as his first wife the heiress of Tawstock Elizabeth FitzWarin, 8th Baroness FitzWarin (c. 1404 – c. 1427). They had no male children. Upon her death the barony must have been in abeyance between her daughters Thomasine Hankford (1423–1453), born and baptised at Tawstock, [40] and Elizabeth Hankford (c. 1424 – 1433) until the death of the latter in 1433, when Thomasine became 9th Baroness. By Thomasine's marriage to William Bourchier, 9th Baron FitzWarin (1407–1470), the estates including Tawstock passed into the Bourchier family, which originated at the manor of Little Easton in Essex.
The later heir of the FitzWarins was the Bourchier family, Earls of Bath and Barons FitzWarin, who made Tawstock their seat and were highly influential in Barnstaple society and politics. They also inherited via the Audleys other manors formerly part of the barony of Barnstaple, including Nymet Tracy, [41] St Marychurch, [42] Kingston, [43] Marwood [44] and Upexe. [45] Another manor which descended from the Audleys was Holne on the River Dart, which was later used as a hunting estate ("Holne Chase") by the Wreys. [46] Their 17th century landholdings in total comprised 36 manors in the counties of Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Berkshire. [47] The Bourchier Barnstaple townhouse is thought to survive as no. 62 Boutport Street, [48] with its surviving ornate plaster barrel-ceilings dated 1620 (or 1629 [49]), showing the arms of Bourchier, [49] which survives next to the Royal and Fortescue Hotel, and was converted in about 1760 to premises of the "Golden Lion" coaching inn. [50] It was converted to premises for the National Westminster Bank in 1936, [49] in 1991 housed a branch of the Woolwich Building Society [51] and in 2014 is a restaurant. The Bourchier family, the Devon branch of which, seated at Tawstock Court, was later created Earls of Bath, retained the manor of Bampton until at least the time of Risdon (died 1640) who states in his Survey of Devon that "the Earl of Bath is lord of this manor". [52] The descent of Bampton was as follows:
The heir of the Bourchiers was the Wrey family of Trebeigh Manor, St Ive, Cornwall. [75] On the death of Henry Bourchier, 5th Earl of Bath (died 1654), the last in the male line, the title became extinct. The co-heiresses to the Bourchier lands became the three daughters of his first cousin once removed Edward Bourchier, 4th Earl of Bath (1590–1636). The 3rd daughter, Lady Anne Bourchier (1631-?), married firstly James Cranfield, 2nd Earl of Middlesex, the issue of which marriage was soon extinct [61] and secondly to Sir Chichester Wrey, 3rd Baronet (1628–1668), whose descendants inherited the principal Bourchier seat of Tawstock. The Devon biographer John Prince (died 1723) stated that in his day the most part of Bampton remained the posterity of the former Earls of Bath and was the "noble seat" of Lady Wrey, dowager of Sir Bourchier Wrey, 4th Baronet (died 1696). [76]
The descent of Tawstock in the Wrey family was as follows:
The heir apparent to the baronetcy is Harry David Bourchier Wrey (born 1984), eldest son of the 15th Baronet.