FEUDAL BARONAGE 



THE HONOUR OF BARNSTAPLE 



The bishop of Coutances was entered in Domesday among church tenants 

 because he was a bishop, but his barony was a lay rather than an ecclesiastical 

 fief. On his death in 1093 it passed to his nephew, Robert de Mowbray, 

 earl of Northumberland, and on Robert's rebellion and forfeiture two years 

 later it was disintegrated. The Somersetshire estates, together with Clyst 

 Fomison or Sowton ^ and Canonteign in Devon, were given by William Rufus 

 to Robert son of Hamon^ and passed with his daughter to Robert first earl 

 of Gloucester ; ' Welcombe the king retained in his own hands ; * Highbray, 

 with Bray and Bratton Fleming, was attached to the honour of Launceston,^ 

 Brampford Speke to the honour of Okehampton," whilst the rest of the 

 bishop's estates in Devon, together with Ralf de Limesei's Roadway and 

 Morthoe,^ and Walter de Dowai's Hockford * (fol. 346), constituring the 

 honour of Barnstaple, were given to Juhel of Totnes in extreme old age,° and 

 from him passed to his son Alfred.^" In 1 1 66 the honour was held in two 

 moieties, one moiety by the second William de Braose, who succeeded his 

 father, Philip, in 1 155, and was the sonof Juhel's daughter;" the other moiety 

 by Oliver de Tracy, who succeeded his father, Henry de Tracy, in 1165,^^ 

 and was also a descendant of Juhel.^' William de Braose's fees then amounted 

 to 28,^* those of Oliver de Tracy to 23 J." Those of the whole barony amounted 

 to 56 in 1234,^* to 52 in 1241." 



In 1 178 Oliver de Tracy was succeeded in his moiety by his son, 

 Oliver, the younger," from whom, in 1 194, William de Braose sought acknow- 

 ledgement of his right to the other moiety." The result was an agreement 

 whereby Oliver acquired all the estates belonging to the honour of Barnstaple, 

 excepting Fremington and 5 fees.*^" In 1 2 1 o Oliver was succeeded by his 



' Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), ij^a ; Feud. Aids, 315. 

 ' Eyton, Somerset, i, 56 ; Trans. Devon. Assoc, jocxiii, 631. 

 ' Round, in V.C.H. Northants, i, 288. 



* Pole, 371, and Lysons, ii, 549, say that it was bestowed on fitz-Richard, confounding it with Capra's 

 Woolacombe Tracy. Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), I7<)a, shows it held of the king in chief appurtenant to 

 the Somersetshire manor of Orchardley (fol. 147). Orchardley was given by Hen. II to Henry de Cultura 

 {Lib. Niger, 97 ; CoUinson, Somerset, ii, 222), whose successor in 1 241 held both it and Welcombe. 



' Feud. Aids, i, 437 ; Trans. Devon. Assoc, xxxiv, 567. 



* Feud. Aids, 315. ' Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 175a. * Ibid. 176a. 



' So say the Hundred Rolls of 3 Edw. I (Rec. Com.), p. 70. Round, Feud. Engl. 486, quotes an authority 

 to show that Juhel held the honour in 1 1 13 ; see below, p. S59- 



'° Oliver, Mon. 199 ; Pipe R. 31 Hen. I, Alvred son of Johel accounts for /no for relief of his father's 

 land. 



" Round, Cal. Doc. France, 360. Lib. Niger, 127 ; Dugdale, Bar. i, 414 ; Trans. Devon. Assoc, xxxvii, 

 422, ». 12 ; Oliver, Mon. 200 ; Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), igja, states that Henry II also gave him the 

 crown manor of Tawstock ; Trans. Devon. Assoc, xxxvii, 422. 



" Lib. Niger, izz. Pipe R. 1 1 Hen. II in Trans. Devon. Assoc, xxix, 488, 490 ; Dugdale, Bar. i, 621. 



" This was the Henry de Tracy who put down William de Mohun's insurrection in 1 149 {Trans. Devon. 

 Assoc, vi, 183), and in 1146 confirmed the donation of 'Johel son of Alvred' (Oliver, Mon. 198), and the 

 donations of ' Alvred of Totnes' to Barnstaple Priory (ibid. 199). Possibly he may have married a daughter 

 of Alvred. 



" Lib. Niger, 127 ; Trans. Devon. Assoc, xxxiii, 381. " Lib. Niger, 122; Trans. Devon. Assoc, xxxiii, 380. 



'* Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 187^, 1955 ; Trans. Devon. Assoc, xxix, 500. 



" Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 175^, gives the number as S2i+-^ ; Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), p. 63, n. 52. 



'' Pipe RoUs, 24 Hen. II ; Trans. Devon. Assoc, xxxvii, 428, ». 22. 



" Abbrev. Placit. 6 Ric. I, Devon, Michaelmas, Rot. 5 ; Will^. de Brewes petit versus Oliverum de Tracy 

 ut teneat finem suum de medietate baronie de Bernstable. Trans. Devon. Assoc, xxxiii, 729. 



'" Abbrev. Placit. i John, Easter and Trinity, Rot. 5 ; Dugdale, Bar. i, 415, 622. 



557 



