264 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
possessions in the county of Devon were bestowed upon him. In 
addition to the castle of Exeter, and the custody of the county of 
Devon, he and his successors were long after styled sheriffs ; the 
honour and barony of Okehampton, and no less than one hundred 
and fifty-nine Devonshire lordships were assigned him; and his 
power in the West Country became very great. The list of his 
possessions in the Exchequer Domesday of Devon fills no less than 
eleven columns, more than one-seventh of the whole book. 
His friends and relatives participated in the rewards heaped 
upon him, and although his son Richard the Viscount died without 
issue, in 1137, his lands descended in his line for several genera- 
tions. ; 
Richard de Redvers, Rivers, or Ripariis, from Reviers, near 
Creuilli, and afterwards de Vernon, Lord of Nehou, was a younger 
brother of Baldwin’s, but we do not know that he joined the 
fortunes of William, or that he was ever in England ; but his son, 
also called Richard, we find in the reign of Henry I. high in favour - 
at Court. He was in the first year of the king’s reign one of his 
chiet councillors, and obtained from him Tiverton and the Honour 
and Castle of Plympton. He was soon created Earl of Devon, * 
with the third penny of the Crown rents collected in the county, 
amounting to £18 annually. Further possessions were given him, 
and at the time of his death he was seized, besides other extensive 
possessions, of Christ Church and the Isle of Wight. He had 
not, however, been able to wean himself from his Norman lordship, 
and on his death there, in 1107, he was buried in the Abbey of 
Montebourgh. 
It is not at all improbable that Plympton Castle was completed 
by Richard de Redvers, and that the building, which, as we shall 
see, lasted but a very short time, was mainly erected by him. 
It will be convenient to point out here the extent of the Norman 
castle. We are assisted in this, in some measure, by a representa- 
tion of the Castle on a seal of its lords. The deed to which the 
seal is attached is dated 15th James I, and by it Alexander 
Maynard, of Tavistock, acknowledged the receipt of 25s. from 
Richard Edgcumbe, Knt., to the use of the lords of the Castle of 
Plympton, due to them for a relief after the death of Peter 
Edgcumbe, of the manor of Stonehouse. 
* Planché, “ The Conqueror and his Companions,” vol. ii. p. 48; Stapleton, 
“¢ Norman Rolls,”’ vol. i. p. 269. 
