Sir William Prouz (died 1316 [1] ) was a noble landowner in Devon, and likely builder of Gidleigh Castle.
Sir William Prouz (died 1316 [1] ) was a noble landowner in Devon, and likely builder of Gidleigh Castle.
William was descended from Peter de Preaux (of which Prouz is the angilicised form), who married Mary de Redvers de Vernon, daughter of William de Redvers, 5th Earl of Devon. [2]
His parents were William Prouz, Sheriff of Devon, and Lady Alice de Ferrers.
William's daughter, Alice, married Roger de Moelys, whose family owned Throwleigh, Chagford and other nearby areas, thereby bringing Gidleigh, Throwleigh, and Chagford into the control of a single family. [3]
William was a distant antecedent of United States president Grover Cleveland. [2]
It is thought that William was the likely builder of the fortified house, Gidleigh Castle on his family estate. [1]
William is also likely to have been the builder of the new manor house at Lustleigh, replacing the old manorial buildings at Barnecourt. [4] This may have been the cause of the abandonment of the old village of Sutreworde near Barnecourt, and the coalescence of the village around the older burial ground near the manor house. [5] The manor house still stands, although now divided into three properties, and is dated to the 14th century. [6]
William is believed to have added the south chapel to the Church of St John the Baptist, near to the manor house in Lustleigh. There is an effigy of him within the church. [7]
At his death, William's will stated that he should be buried with his ancestors at the church in Lustleigh, but his executors interred his body at Holberton instead. His daughter, Alice Prouz, had to petition the bishop to exhume William's body and have it reinterred at Lustleigh, for which a mandate was issued. [8] [9]
Harewood is a village, civil parish, former manor and ecclesiastical parish, in West Yorkshire, England, today in the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds. The civil parish population at the 2011 census was 3,734.
Chagford is a market town and civil parish on the north-east edge of Dartmoor, in Devon, England, close to the River Teign and the A382, 4 miles (6 km) west of Moretonhampstead. The name is derived from chag, meaning gorse or broom, and the ford suffix indicates its importance as a crossing place. At the 2011 Census, it had a population of 1,449.
Lustleigh is a small village and civil parish in the Wray Valley, inside the Dartmoor National Park in Devon, England. It is between the towns of Bovey Tracey and Moretonhampstead. The village has often been named amongst the best or prettiest villages in the country in various publications, particularly due to the traditional thatched buildings in the village centre, and local activities such as the Lustleigh Show. This has also led to it being noted as the most expensive rural location to buy a house.
William de Redvers, 5th Earl of Devon, of Tiverton Castle and Plympton Castle, both in Devon, was feudal baron of Plympton in Devon.
Gidleigh Castle was the manor house of the manor of Gidleigh on the north-eastern edge of Dartmoor, about two miles (3.2 km) north-west of the town of Chagford, Devon, England.
Gidleigh is a village and civil parish in the West Devon district of Devon, England. Located within Dartmoor National Park, the parish is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Throwleigh, Chagford and Dartmoor Forest. In 2001 its population was 116, little changed from 114 in 1901.
Tiverton Castle is the remains of a medieval castle dismantled after the Civil War and thereafter converted in the 17th century into a country house. It occupies a defensive position above the banks of the River Exe at Tiverton in Devon.
The Church of St John the Baptist is the Church of England parish church of the village of Lustleigh, Devon, located in the centre of the village.
Sir Hugh Courtenay of Boconnoc in Cornwall, was twice a Member of Parliament for Cornwall in 1446–47 and 1449–50. He was beheaded after the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471, together with John Courtenay, 7th Earl of Devon, the grandson of his first cousin the 4th Earl, and last in the senior line, whose titles were forfeited. His son Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon, was created Earl of Devon in 1485 by King Henry VII, following the Battle of Bosworth and the closure of the Wars of the Roses.
Sir John Speke (1442–1518) of Whitelackington, Somerset and of Heywood in the parish of Wembworthy and of Bramford Speke both in Devon, was Sheriff of Devon in 1517 and a Member of Parliament (1477). He was knighted in 1501. His monument is the Speke Chantry in Exeter Cathedral in which survives his recumbent effigy.
West Ogwell is a village and former civil parish and manor, now in the parish of Ogwell, in the Teignbridge district, in the county of Devon, England. It is located 2 miles south-west of the town of Newton Abbot and 1 mile west of the village of East Ogwell. The church and manor house "lie hidden away on their own". In 1891 the parish had a population of 39. In 1894 the parish was abolished and merged with East Ogwell to form "Ogwell".
Washfield is a village, parish and former manor in Devon, England, situated about 2 miles north-west of Tiverton. The parish church is dedicated to St Mary the Virgin. It was within the jurisdiction of the historic West Budleigh Hundred.
Sir John Whiddon of Whiddon in the parish of Chagford in Devon, was a Justice of the Queen's Bench from 4 October 1553 to his death on 27 January 1576, during the reigns of Queen Mary I and Queen Elizabeth I.
Webbery is an historic manor in the parish of Alverdiscott in North Devon, England.
The manor of Hillersdon was a historic manor in the parish of Cullompton, Devon, England which was held by the de Hillersdon family from the 13th century until the early 16th century. It was then held by a number of different families including the Cockeram, Cruwys and Grant families. Hillersdon House was built in the nineteenth century by the Grant family and is still in use.
Nicholas Eveleigh (1562–1618) of Parke in the parish of Bovey Tracey in Devon, was an utter barrister, and served as Steward of the Stannary Court of Ashburton, Devon. He died aged 56 when the roof of Chagford Stannary Courthouse collapsed, killing him and nine others. His "sumptuous" monument survives in Bovey Tracey Church.
Ernsborough is an historic Saxon estate dating from the 9th or 11th century, situated in the parish of Swimbridge in Devon, England, about 2 miles south-east of the village of Swimbridge. It is best remembered today for having contained during the 14th century a high-status mansion house occupied by the Mules or De Moels family, closely related to Baron Moels of Somerset.
Bagtor is a historic estate in the parish of Ilsington in Devon, England. It was the birthplace of John Ford the playwright and poet. The Elizabethan mansion of the Ford family survives today at Bagtor as the service wing of a later house appended in about 1700.
Sutreworde was a village and manor in historical record, also noted as Suðeswyrðe, located within the Teignbridge Hundred. The modern identity of this village has been the subject of academic debate, but is thought to have been within the parish of Lustleigh, but not at the location of the current village.
Sir William de Widworthy was a knight during the reign of Edward I of England, based in Widworthy in the Colyton Hundred, Devon. He was the earliest lord of the manor recorded by the Devon historian Sir William Pole.