St Peter's Church is the parish church of the town of Barnstaple in North Devon, England. Parts of the church date to the 13th-century with much restoration during the Victorian era by George Gilbert Scott and later by his son John Oldrid Scott which changed the atmosphere of the building, although many fine wall monuments and tablets remain. The church comes under the Diocese of Exeter.
Æthelstan is said to have granted Barnstaple its first Charter in 930 AD and it is believed a church may have existed here then. The town received subsequent Charters in 1154, 1189, 1201 and 1273. The first recorded Rector was Walter Treasurer of Exeter (1257) and the first stone church probably dates from this time. [1] Fragments of the tower are late 13th-century, as are parts of the chancel, although the latter was raised and widened when the north and south aisles were added (or rather were formed out of three then existing chantry chapels) after the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the Perpendicular style to transform a cruciform church into one of rectangular shape. [1] [2] These aisles were rebuilt in about 1670, [3] but retain mural monuments of earlier date. The building was enlarged, probably in 1318 when three altars were dedicated by Walter de Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter. [4] There is a record of a steeple being erected in 1388 but the present lead-covered broach spire dates to the late 17th-century and is said by Hoskins to be the best of its kind in England. [1] [5]
The advowson and rectory were long the property of Barnstaple Priory (Priory of St Mary Magdalene), of the Cluniac order. Ancient charters were quoted from by Dugdale (d.1686) in his Monasticon Anglicanum (1718 edition in English) thus: [6] [7]
The two-storied Dodderidgian Library (Latin: Bibliotheca Doddridgiana) with wooden mullioned windows was built in 1667 in the north-east corner of the chancel. [8] The Dodderidge Library was founded in 1664 by the widow of John Dodderidge (1610-1659), of Barnstaple and of Bremridge in the parish of South Molton, MP for Barnstaple in 1646 and 1654, who donated or bequeathed her husband's library to the Corporation of Barnstaple. He was the son and heir of Pentecost Dodderidge (d.1650), thrice MP for Barnstaple, the younger brother and heir of Sir John Dodderidge (1555–1628), Justice of the King's Bench and Member of Parliament for Barnstaple in 1589. [9] The books were removed to the North Devon Athenaeum in 1888 and from there in 1957 on permanent loan to Exeter University Library.
In the north transept is the ceremonial pew of the Mayor of Barnstaple, in the form of a large wooden armchair with heraldic beasts to each side.
The organ, one of the largest in Devon, was made by John Crang in 1764 and was donated by Sir George Amyand, 1st Baronet (1720–1766), MP for Barnstaple 1754–1766. [10] It is decorated with his armorials: Vert, a chevron between three garbs or with an inescutcheon of unidentified arms, overall the Red Hand of Ulster.
Inside the church are many mural monuments to 17th-century merchants, several of whom served as Mayor of Barnstaple. These reflect the prosperity of the town and its port at that time. Monuments include those to: [8] [11] [12]
In 1811 and 1825 galleries were added resulting in the loss of many wall memorials and tablets. The interior received a heavy Victorian restoration by George Gilbert Scott from 1866, and then by his son John Oldrid Scott into the 1880s, [19] during which the unsightly galleries were taken down but which left the church "dark and dull", according to Hoskins. [5] However, Scott refused to demolish the tower, as had been proposed by his patrons, and retained the 17th century large straight-headed and transomed windows of the north aisle. [8] During the restoration many memorials were salvaged and put into the Lady Chapel on the south aisle. The Lady Chapel itself was restored in 1911. [1]
Barnstaple is a river-port town in North Devon, England, at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool and won great wealth. Later it imported Irish wool, but its harbour silted up and other trades developed such as shipbuilding, foundries and sawmills. A Victorian market building survives, with a high glass and timber roof on iron columns. The parish population was 24,033 at the 2011 census, and that of the built-up area 32,411 in 2018. The town area with nearby settlements such as Bishop's Tawton, Fremington and Landkey, had a 2020 population of 46,619.
Goodleigh is a village, civil parish and former manor in North Devon, England. The village lies about 2+1⁄2 miles (4 km) north-east of the historic centre of Barnstaple. Apart from one adjunct at the south, it is generally a linear settlement.
Sir John Doddridge (1555–1628) was an English lawyer, appointed Justice of the King's Bench in 1612 and served as Member of Parliament for Barnstaple in 1589 and for Horsham in 1604. He was also an antiquarian and writer. He acquired the nickname "the sleeping judge" from his habit of shutting his eyes while listening intently to a case. As a lawyer he was influenced by humanist ideas, and was familiar with the ideas of Aristotle, and the debates of the period between his followers and the Ramists. He was a believer in both the rationality of the English common law and in its connection with custom. He was one of the Worthies of Devon of the biographer John Prince (d.1723).
The Priory of St Mary Magdalene in Barnstaple was a priory in Devon, England. It was founded in about 1107 by Juhel de Totnes, feudal baron of Barnstaple, who had earlier founded Totnes Priory in about 1087 at the caput of his former feudal barony of Totnes, from which he had been expelled. Barnstaple Priory was of the Cluniac order, and was senior to all others of that order in England. It was dedicated to St Mary Magdalene. It was situated on land outside the town walls stretching from the North Gate to the East Gate with the River Yeo forming its northern boundary. Nearby to the north across the River Yeo was the Benedictine Pilton Priory of St Mary the Virgin, a cell of Malmesbury Abbey, founded slightly later, between 1107 and 1199.
George Peard (1594–1645) of Barnstaple in Devon, England, was a politician who sat in the House of Commons of England from 1640 to 1645. He supported the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War.
Richard Ferris was a wealthy merchant from Barnstaple in Devon, England who served as a Member of Parliament for Barnstaple in 1640 and served twice as Mayor of Barnstaple in 1632 and 1646. He founded the Barnstaple Grammar School, otherwise known as the "Blue School".
John II Dodderidge (1610–1659) of Bremridge in the parish of South Molton, Devon, was a lawyer who was elected MP for Barnstaple in 1646 and 1654, for Bristol in 1656 and for Devon also in 1656, and chose to sit for Devon, but was prevented by Oliver Cromwell from taking his seat.
John Delbridge was an English merchant from Devon who was elected six times as a Member of Parliament.
Stevenstone is a former manor within the parish of St Giles in the Wood, near Great Torrington, North Devon. It was the chief seat of the Rolle family, one of the most influential and wealthy of Devon families, from c. 1524 until 1907. The Rolle estates as disclosed by the Return of Owners of Land, 1873 comprised 55,592 acres producing an annual gross income of £47,170, and formed the largest estate in Devon, followed by the Duke of Bedford's estate centred on Tavistock comprising 22,607 with an annual gross value of nearly £46,000.
Sir Lewis Pollard of Grilstone in the parish of Bishop's Nympton, Devon, was Justice of the Common Pleas from 1514 to 1526 and served as MP for Totnes in 1491 and was a JP in Devon in 1492. He was knighted after 1509. He was one of several Devonshire men to be "innated with a genius to study law", as identified by Fuller, who became eminent lawyers at a national level. He was a kinsman of the judge and Speaker of the House of Commons Sir John Pollard.
The Mayor of Barnstaple together with the Corporation long governed the historic Borough of Barnstaple, in North Devon, England. The seat of government was the Barnstaple Guildhall. The mayor served a term of one year and was elected annually on the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin by a jury of twelve. However Barnstaple was a mesne borough and was held by the Mayor and Corporation in chief not from the king but from the feudal baron of Barnstaple, later known as the lord of the "Castle Manor" or "Castle Court". The Corporation tried on several occasions to claim the status of a "free borough" which answered directly to the monarch and to divest itself of this overlordship, but without success. The mayor was not recognised as such by the monarch, but merely as the bailiff of the feudal baron. The powers of the borough were highly restricted, as was determined by an inquisition ad quod damnum during the reign of King Edward III (1327–1377), which from an inspection of evidence found that members of the corporation elected their mayor only by permission of the lord, legal pleas were held in a court at which the lord's steward, not the mayor, presided, that the borough was taxed by the county assessors, and that the lord held the various assizes which the burgesses claimed. Indeed, the purported ancient royal charter supposedly granted by the Anglo-Saxon King Æthelstan (d.939) and held by the corporation, from which it claimed its borough status, was suspected to be a forgery.
Hudscott is a historic estate within the parish and former manor of Chittlehampton, Devon. From 1700 it became a seat of a junior branch of the influential Rolle family of Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe and in 1779 became a secondary seat of the senior Rolle family of Stevenstone, then the largest landowner in Devon. Hudscott House, classified in 1967 a Grade II* listed building, is situated one mile south-east of the village of Chittlehampton. It was largely rebuilt in the 17th century by the Lovering family and in the late 17th century became a refuge for ejected Presbyterial ministers. In 1737 its then occupant Samuel II Rolle (1703-1747) purchased the manor of Chittlehampton and thus Hudscott House became in effect the manor house of Chittlehampton.
Bremridge is a historic estate within the former hundred of South Molton in Devon, England. It is now within the parish of Filleigh but was formerly in that of South Molton. It is situated 8 miles north-west of South Molton. Since the construction of the nearby A361 North Devon Link Road direct access has been cut off from Bremridge to Filleigh and South Molton. The surviving wing of the mansion house built in 1654 is a Grade II* listed building. Bremridge Wood is the site of an Iron Age enclosure or hill fort, the earthwork of which is situated on a hillside forming a promontory above the River Bray. In Bremridge Wood survives a disused tunnel of the former Great Western Railway line between South Molton and Barnstaple, much of the course of which has been used for the A361. The tunnel is 319 yards long and was identified as "Bremridge Tunnel" in the 1889 Ordnance Survey map but as "Castle Hill Tunnel" in subsequent editions.
Richard Beaple of Barnstaple, Devon, was a wealthy merchant, ship owner and member of the Spanish Company, and was three times Mayor of Barnstaple in 1607, 1621 and 1635. His elaborate mural monument survives in St Peter's Church, Barnstaple.
Mount Radford is an historic estate in the parish of St Leonards, adjacent to the east side of the City of Exeter in Devon.
Gilbert Paige of Crock Street, Barnstaple, and Rookabeare House in the adjoining parish of Fremington, Devon, was a merchant who was twice Mayor of Barnstaple in 1629 and 1641.
The Recorder of Barnstaple was a recorder, a form of senior judicial officer, usually an experienced barrister, within the jurisdiction of the Borough of Barnstaple in Devon. He was usually a member of the local North Devonshire gentry. The position of recorder of any borough carried a great deal of prestige and power of patronage. The recorder of a borough was often entrusted by the mayor and corporation to nominate its Members of Parliament, as was the case with Sir Hugh I Pollard, Recorder of Barnstaple, who in 1545 nominated the two MP's to represent the Borough of Barnstaple. In the 19th century a recorder was the sole judge who presided at a Quarter Sessions of a Borough, a "Court of Record", and was a barrister of at least five years' standing. He fixed the dates of the Quarter Sessions at his own discretion "as long as he holds it once every quarter of a year", or more often if he deemed fit.
Thomas Horwood (1600-1658) of Barnstaple in Devon, was twice Mayor of Barnstaple, in 1640 and 1653. He founded an almshouse in Church Lane, Barnstaple. His mural monument survives in St Peter's Church, Barnstaple.
George Peard (1548–1621) of the High Street, Barnstaple in north Devon, England was a lawyer of that town and was twice elected as one of the two Members of Parliament for Barnstaple, in 1597 and 1604.
Rev. Martin Blake (1593-1673) was vicar of Barnstaple in Devon, 1628–56; 1660–73, and suffered much for his adherence to the Royalist cause during the Civil War, as related in John Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy (1714). According to Chanter (1882) "The eventful history of the Rev. Martin Blake has been often written in public history and local annals".
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