346 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
put in possession of a tenement in Sutton Vautort, which had 
belonged to John Austin. 1 
Not long after we find the Durnfords extending their possessions 
in the other direction; for in 1386 (9 Richard II.) Sir John de 
Harpsden grants and demises to Stephen and Cecilia Derneford 
the whole manor of Eame for life, and this was followed up in 
1393 (16 Richard II.) by a grant to Stephen of the same in tail. 2 
And thus at the end of the fourteenth century we find the 
Durnfords practically in possession of the estates in Stonehouse, 
Plymouth, Maker, and Rame, which afterwards passed to the 
Edgcumbes. 
Stephen Durnford the elder had two sons, Stephen and John, 
and a daughter Isolda; and in 1394 (18 Richard II.) he executed 
an entail of his Bastard property — John Hele, chaplain, and 
William Honyton, granting it to Stephen the elder for life, with 
remainder to his children in succession in tail. 
Stephen the younger married Radegund, daughter of Nicholas 
Cotterell (there is a statement that she was daughter of Sir 
William Fitzwalter) \ John married a certain Joan. 
The Durnfords continued in possession of Stonehouse and their 
other estates until the marriage of their heiress, Joan or Jane 
Durnford, with Sir Piers Edgcumbe, circa 1493. She was 
daughter of James Durnford, who was the son of James Durnford 
and Margaret Bykerby (Bigbury), 3 and grandson of Stephen 
the younger. Her mother was Jane, daughter of John Holland. 
1 Stephen Durnford had acquired the rents and services of John Golde 
and other tenants in Sutton Prior and Sutton Wanland, by grant of Walter 
Attepole, son of John Attepole, in 1367 (41 Edward III.) 
2 Stonehouse formed part of the honour of Plympton. As early as 1404 
there was a dispute between the Earl of Devon and Stephen Durnford, 
touching the manor of Rame ; and when he died, in 1410, his son paid the 
Earl 65s. 8d., a relief of a knight fee's, in respect of that manor. In 1458 
James Durnford granted Margaret, daughter of Sir Hugh Courtney, an 
annual rent of 100 marks, in name of her dower ; and in 1460 he did homage 
to the Earl of Devon for Stonehouse, Tenton (Kingsteignton), and Rame, 
which he held by knight service. The feudal superiority was maintained 
during the early ownership of the Edgcumbes ; for in 1608 we find Alexander 
Maynard giving a receipt for 25s. relief on the death of Peter Edgcumbe, for 
the use of the lords of the Castle of Plympton. 
3 In 1415 William Werthe and others gave seisin of the manor of Stone- 
house and passage of Cremil, inter alia, to Sir William Hankford for 
William de Bykebury. 
