Docton is an historic estate in the parish of Hartland in Devon, England. The former "mansion house", [2] 3 miles south-west of the village of Hartland, was the residence of the Docton (originally de Docton) family from the 15th century. Today the estate comprises separate holdings of Docton Farm, [3] a working farm which operates holiday-let cottages, and Docton Mill, [4] the estate's former corn mill, which is operated as tea-rooms with a garden open to the public.
The arms of the Docton family were: Per fess gules and argent, two crescents in chief or another in base sable. [6] These may be seen, amongst other places, in a 1933 stained glass window in St Nectan's Church, Hartland, by Townshend and Howson and on the ledger stone to Phillipa Cary (1603–1633) in Clovelly Church.
"Here l lie outside the chancel door;
Here I lie because I'm poor:
The further in, the more they pay;
But here I lie as warm as they".
The slab was originally placed in the churchyard outside the chancel door, but in 1848 was brought inside and set into the floor of the chancel. [16] However, it "disproves the assertion of poverty" as it is a costly item comprising a brass plate beautifully engraved with the arms of Docton quartering Chantrell (Argent, three talbots passant sable), complete with helm, mantling, crest and Latin motto: Deus Dat Deus Aufert ("the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away", Job 1:21). Below are two texts from the Bible. The ledger stone of his wife Alice Atkin in similar form survives, complete with brass lettering in the ledger line as follows: [17]
Heere lyeth the...of Mris [18] Alice Docton, Widdow, late the wife of Thomas Docton of Docton Esquier, deceased, who was buried the second day of Septem. Anno Do. 1619 who gave by her will xx pounds to remayne in a stocke for the use of the poore of this parish forever. The righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart" (Isaiah 57:1)
As he left no surviving issue he "left his inheritance to one of his name", [19] namely his first cousin Thomas II Docton (d.1638), [20] the eldest son of Richard Docton (d.1570/1) of Welsford.
She's gon to Heaven yt liv'd on Earth,
A saynt if saynts drawe mortall breath.
Hope was her anchor, faith her sheilde,
Love to the poore ye Elizean Feilde
Through wch shee past unto her rest,
To raigne wth Christ for ever blest.
This way she went, oh hasten on!
While 'tis today ye way she's gon.
Externall bewty let it passe!
What is't but fflesh you se is grasse. [26]
The Cary family is an English aristocratic family with a branch in Ireland. The earliest known ancestor of the family is Sir Adam de Kari who was living in 1198. Sir John Cary purchased the Manor of Clovelly in the 14th century and established the family's status as members of the landed gentry. Various branches of the family were ennobled in the late 16th and early 17th centuries as Baron Hunsdon and Viscount Falkland.
Sir John Cary (or Carey) (c. 1491 – 1552), of Pleshey in Essex, was a courtier to King Henry VIII, whom he served as a Groom of the Privy Chamber, and of whom he was a third cousin, both being 4th in descent from John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset (1371-1410).
Sir George Carey, JP, DL, of Cockington in the parish of Tor Mohun in Devon, England, was Lord Deputy of Ireland from May 1603 to February 1604.
Doctor George Cary (1611–1680), Professor of Sacred Theology, lord of the manor of Clovelly, Devon, was Dean of Exeter between 1663 and 1680. He was also Rector of Clovelly and of Shobrooke in Devon and Chaplain in Ordinary to King Charles II. He was one of the Worthies of Devon of John Prince.
Robert Carey, lord of the manor of Clovelly in North Devon, was Member of Parliament for Barnstaple, Devon, in October 1553 and served as Sheriff of Devon in 1555–56. He served as Recorder of Barnstaple after 1560. Along with several other members of the Devonshire gentry then serving as magistrates he died of gaol fever at the Black Assize of Exeter 1587. His large monument survives in Clovelly Church.
Hall is a large estate within the parish and former manor of Bishop's Tawton, Devon. It was for several centuries the seat of a younger branch of the prominent and ancient North Devon family of Chichester of Raleigh, near Barnstaple. The mansion house is situated about 2 miles south-east of the village of Bishop's Tawton and 4 miles south-east of Barnstaple, and sits on a south facing slope of the valley of the River Taw, overlooking the river towards the village of Atherington. The house and about 2,500 acres of surrounding land continues today to be owned and occupied by descendants, via a female line, of the Chichester family. The present Grade II* listed neo-Jacobean house was built by Robert Chichester between 1844 and 1847 and replaced an earlier building. Near the house to the south at the crossroads of Herner the Chichester family erected in the 1880s a private chapel of ease which contains mediaeval woodwork saved from the demolished Old Guildhall in Barnstaple.
The landed gentry and nobility of Devonshire, like the rest of the English and European gentry, bore heraldic arms from the start of the age of heraldry circa 1200–1215. The fashion for the display of heraldry ceased about the end of the Victorian era (1901) by which time most of the ancient arms-bearing families of Devonshire had died out, moved away or parted with their landed estates.
The Manor of King's Nympton was a manor largely co-terminous with the parish of King's Nympton in Devon, England.
Joseph Prust (1620–1677) of Annery, in the parish of Monkleigh, Devon, was a royalist military commander during the Civil War. He was a lieutenant colonel.
Sir John Dinham (1406–1458) was a knight from Devonshire, England. His principal seats were at Nutwell and Kingskerswell in South Devon and Hartland in North Devon.
Lewis William Buck (1784–1858) of Moreton House, Bideford, and Hartland Abbey, Devon, was Member of Parliament for Exeter 1826–32 and for North Devon 1839–57, and was Sheriff of Devon in 1825/6. A full-length portrait of Lewis William Buck by Francis Grant (1803–1878) was presented to him by the people of North Devon after he had served eighteen years as their MP, now displayed in the billiards room of Hartland Abbey, with his electioneering posters on each side.
Sir James Hamlyn, 1st Baronet (1735–1811) of Clovelly Court in Devon, and of Edwinsford, Carmarthenshire, Wales, was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Carmarthen 1793–1802. He served as Sheriff of Devon in 1767–8. He was created a baronet in 1795. He not only inherited a large estate in Devon from his wealthy childless great-uncle, but also married a wealthy Welsh heiress.
Zachary Hamlyn (1677–1759), of Clovelly and Woolfardisworthy, three miles south-east of Clovelly, Devon, was a lawyer of Lincoln's Inn and thought to be the first Clerk of the Journals of the House of Commons. He made a large fortune and in 1738 purchased the manor of Clovelly from the last of the Cary family, longtime lords of the manor, and made Clovelly Court his residence.
Sir William Cary (1437–1471) of Cockington and Clovelly in Devon was a member of the Devonshire gentry. He was beheaded after the defeat of the Lancastrians at the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471.
The Manor of Clovelly is a historic manor in North Devon, England. Within the manor are situated the manor house known as Clovelly Court, the parish church of All Saints, and the famous picturesque fishing village of Clovelly. The parish church is unusually well-filled with well-preserved monuments to the lords of the manor, of the families of Cary, Hamlyn, Fane, Manners and Asquith. In 2015 the Rous family, direct descendants via several female lines of Zachary Hamlyn (1677–1759) the only purchaser of Clovelly since the 14th century, still own the estate or former manor, amounting to about 2,000 acres, including Clovelly Court and the advowson of the parish church, and the village of Clovelly, run as a major tourist attraction with annual paying visitor numbers of about 200,000.
Yeo Vale is an historic estate in the parish of Alwington in North Devon, England. The grade II listed mansion house known as Yeo Vale House, situated 1 mile east of Alwington Church and 3 miles south-west of Bideford, incorporating a 15th-century gatehouse, was demolished in 1973, having been abandoned as a residence in 1938 and having fallen into a dilapidated state. it was situated in the valley of the River Yeo, a small river flowing into the River Torridge immediately above Bideford. The barton or farmhouse survives, to which was attached the mansion house, together with various out-buildings and stone walls. A private mediaeval chapel was formerly attached to the mansion house and in the early 18th century was demolished and rebuilt as a folly on a hill about 1/4 mile south of the mansion house. It survives today as a ruin overgrown with trees and ivy.
Spencer Combe in the parish of Crediton, Devon, is an historic estate. The grade II listed farmhouse known today as "Spence Combe", the remnant of a former mansion house, is situated 3 miles north-west of the town of Crediton.
Richard Bampfield (1526–1594) of Poltimore and Bampfylde House in Exeter, both in Devon, was Sheriff of Devon in 1576. He began construction of the Tudor era Poltimore House in 1550, and completed the building of Bampfylde House, Exeter, along with The Great House, Bristol one of the finest Elizabethan townhouses in the West Country, in 1590. He is the ancestor of the Bampfylde Baronets and Barons Poltimore.
Sir Hugh Stucley (1496–1559) was the lord of Affeton in Devon, and Sheriff of Devon in 1545. His third son was Thomas Stukley, known as "The Lusty Stucley".
Richard Cole of Bucks in the parish of Woolfardisworthy in North Devon, and of Slade in the parish of Cornwood, South Devon, was a member of the Devonshire gentry whose large monument with effigy survives in All Hallows Church, Woolfardisworthy. Certain modern sources link him to Old King Cole in the synonymous Nursery rhyme.