The Devon and Exeter Institution is a subscription library in the City of Exeter, Devon, founded in 1813 for "The general diffusion of science, literature and the arts". [1] It is situated at 7, Cathedral Close, Exeter, in a building facing the north side of Exeter Cathedral which was formerly the Exeter townhouse of the Courtenay family of Powderham Castle.
Membership is by annual subscription, although current students and staff of Exeter University may use it free of charge. [2]
The library houses two marble busts by the sculptor Edward Bowring Stephens (1815–1882) of Exeter, of Sir William Webb Follett (1796–1845), MP for Exeter and Sir John Bowring (1792–1872), of Exeter, Governor of Hong Kong and President of the Devon and Exeter Institution 1860–61.
The library's collection consists of approximately 40,000 printed books in addition to prints, documents, drawings, art and a small number of artefacts. [3]
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The idea for an institution combining a library, reading room, county museum and venue for public lectures was conceived by William Elford Leach, a young naturalist from Plymouth. Leach approached the Mayor of Exeter with his proposal in June 1812, and fundraising began shortly after. The Institution's aims were agreed in a meeting on 12 August 1813. Membership required the purchase of a £25 share and an annual subscription of £1, limiting its initial membership to affluent, educated gentlemen. [6]
The building in which the Institution is housed at 7, Cathedral Close, was purchased from the Dean and Chapter of Exeter Cathedral and was formerly the Exeter townhouse of the Civil War Roundhead General Sir William Waller (c.1597–1668) of Forde, Wolborough, Devon. Following the death of his son, his eventual heiress was his daughter Margaret Waller (d.1694), who married Sir William Courtenay, 1st Baronet (1628–1702), of Powderham, [7] Devon, to which family she brought the Waller estates including the Exeter townhouse. [8] Her descendants became Viscounts Courtenay and Earls of Devon.
An heraldic overmantel of c.1750, survives in a back room of 7 Cathedral Close. The left hand painted panel shows the arms of William Courtenay, 1st Viscount Courtenay (1711–1762): Quarterly 1st & 4th: Or, three torteaux (Courtenay); 2 & 3: Or, a lion rampant azure (de Redvers, Earl of Devon) impaling Argent, a chevron between three griffins passant sable, the arms of Finch, Earl of Aylesford, the family of his wife. The sinister supporter is one of the Finch heraldic griffins, the dexter one is the Courtenay boar. The Courtenay Latin motto is shown underneath: Ubi lapsus quid feci ("Where did I slip what have I done"). The panel on the right shows the arms of Bishop Peter Courtenay (1432–1492), Bishop of Exeter and Winchester, of the Powderham family. His arms (Courtenay, with a label of three points azure each point of the label charged with three plates for difference) are impaled by the arms of the See of Winchester, which are very similar to the arms of the See of Exeter. The whole is circumscribed by the Garter. The supporters are: dexter, the Courtenay dolphin, sinister, the Courtenay boar. The motto beneath is: Quod verum tutum ("What is true is safe"). [9]
Powderham Castle is a fortified manor house situated within the parish and former manor of Powderham, within the former hundred of Exminster, Devon, about 6 miles (9.7 km) south of the city of Exeter and 1⁄4 mile (0.4 km) north-east of the village of Kenton, where the main public entrance gates are located. It is a Grade I listed building. The park and gardens are Grade II* listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.
Peter Courtenay was Bishop of Exeter (1478–87) and Bishop of Winchester (1487-92), and also had a successful political career during the tumultuous years of the Wars of the Roses.
William Reginald Courtenay, 11th Earl of Devon PC, styled Lord Courtenay between 1835 and 1859, was a British politician who served as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from 1866 to 1867 and as President of the Poor Law Board from 1867 to 1868.
William Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon, feudal baron of Okehampton and feudal baron of Plympton, was a member of the leading noble family of Devon. His principal seat was Tiverton Castle, Devon with further residences at Okehampton Castle and Colcombe Castle, also in that county.
Dittisham is a village and civil parish in the South Hams district of the English county of Devon. It is situated on the west bank of the tidal River Dart, some 2 miles (3.2 km) upstream of Dartmouth.
Thomas de Courtenay, 5th/13th Earl of Devon was a nobleman from South West England. His seat was at Colcombe Castle near Colyton, and later at the principal historic family seat of Tiverton Castle, after his mother's death. The Courtenay family had historically been an important one in the region, and the dominant force in the counties of Devon and Cornwall. However, the rise in power and influence of several gentry families and other political players, in the years leading up to Thomas' accession to the earldom, threatened the traditional dominance of the earls of Devon in the area. Much of his life was spent in armed territorial struggle against his near-neighbour, Sir William Bonville of Shute, at a time when central control over the provinces was weak. This feud forms part of the breakdown in law and order in England that led to the Wars of the Roses.
William Courtenay, 1st Viscount Courtenay, also de jure 7th Earl of Devon, was a British peer. He was the son of William Courtenay, 6th Earl of Devon and 2nd Baronet Courtenay, and Lady Anne Bertie.
Henry Reginald Courtenay (1741–1803) was an English Bishop of Bristol (1794–1797) and Bishop of Exeter 1797–1803.
Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon, KG was an English nobleman. He was a member of the ancient Courtenay family.
Sir Philip Courtenay of Powderham, Devon, was the senior member of a junior branch of the powerful Courtenay family, Earls of Devon.
Francis Courtenay, de jure 4th Earl of Devon, of Powderham, Devon, was an English Member of Parliament. In 1831 he was recognised retrospectively as having been de jure 4th Earl of Devon, having succeeded his father in 1630.
Sir William Courtenay of Powderham in Devon was a prominent member of the Devonshire gentry. He was Sheriff of Devon in 1579–80 and received the rare honour of having been three times elected MP for the prestigious county seat (Devon) in 1584, 1589 and 1601.
Sir Peter Courtenay, KG, (1346–1405) was a soldier, knight of the shire, Chamberlain to King Richard II and a famous jouster. His principal seat was Hardington Mandeville, Somerset.
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.
Edward Bowring Stephens, was a British sculptor from Devon. He was honorary secretary of the Institute of Sculptors circa 1861.
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.
Great Fulford is an historic estate in the parish of Dunsford, Devon. The grade I listed manor house, known as Great Fulford House, is about 9 miles west of Exeter. Its site was said in 1810 to be "probably the most ancient in the county". The present mansion house is Tudor with refurbishment from the late 17th century and further remodelling from about 1800. The prefix "Great" dates from the late 17th century and served to distinguish it from the mansion house known as "Little Fulford" in the parish of Shobrooke, Devon, about 8 miles to the north-east, also owned briefly by Col. Francis Fulford (1666–1700), as a result of his marriage to the heiress of the Tuckfield family. Great Fulford has been the residence of the Fulford family, which took its name from the estate, from the reign of King Richard I (1189–1199) to the present day. There are thus few, if any, families in Devonshire of more ancient recorded origin still resident at their original seat. In 2004 the estate comprised 3,000 acres.
Sir William Huddesfield of Shillingford St George in Devon, was Attorney General for England and Wales to Kings Edward IV (1461–1483) and Henry VII (1485–1509). He built the tower of St George's Church, Shillingford.
Hawkridge in the parish of Chittlehampton in North Devon, England, is an historic estate, anciently the seat of a junior branch of the Acland family which originated at nearby Acland, in the parish of Landkey and later achieved great wealth and prominence as the Acland Baronets of Killerton, near Exeter. The former mansion house is today a farmhouse known as Hawkridge Barton, a grade II* listed building. The Devon historian Hoskins (1959) stated of Hawkridge: "Externally there is nothing remarkable except a decaying avenue of ancient walnuts, so often the first indication of a 16th or 17th century mansion". The interior contains a fine plaster heraldic overmantel showing the arms of Acland impaling Tremayne, representing the 1615 marriage of Baldwin Acland (1593–1659) of Hawkridge and Elizabeth Tremayne.
Upcott is an historic manor in the parish of Cheriton Fitzpaine, Devon. The manor house, known as Upcott Barton is a mediaeval grade II* listed building notorious in the history of Devon as the place where in 1455 the murder of the lawyer Nicholas Radford by a mob directed by the Earl of Devon during the Wars of the Roses took place. In the grounds is a reproduction of an Iron Age roundhouse built circa 2014.
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